Hidden staff reduction has started at Naftan

Naftan’s workshops single out into a separate unitary enterprise.

At Belarusian Independent Trade Union they take it as a hidden staff reduction.

According to the newspaper Naftan’s Herald, the fate of the first workshops to be singled out into a separate unitary enterprise will come to the workshops number 17 and 018. Repairs workers are transferred from the main workshops to the structure of a new workshop. So far they remain within the plant’s structure.

The chairman of the primary Belarusian Independent Trade Union organization at Naftan Ivan Sviatokha commented on the situation for the praca-by.info web-site. In his opinion, the changes bring nothing good to the workers.

- People will be singled out into a separate structural unit and will not be considered belonging to the plant. For the workers this is, of course, bad. First of all, they will lose the current salary. Secondly, they will lose the social welfare package. Thirdly, it is not known whether they will have jobs there, since they will become a separate enterprise – will the plant hire them or someone else? One may say that this is hidden staff reduction, - the trade union leader pointed out.

Ivan Sviatokha is not yet ready to asses Belarusian Independent Trade Union’s prospects at the new unitary enterprise:

- It is difficult to speak of our trade union’s prospects yet. We do not have many people at workshops. It is unclear, how this transformation into a separate enterprise will look like in the end.