#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Despite the difficult epidemic situation in the country and the world, the Nornickel company fulfilled all its obligations on social, sports and cultural projects, as well as provided assistance to healthcare institutions in the territories of its presence, non-profit organizations and entrepreneurs.
“Due to the pandemic, we had three main areas of activity. This is the health and safety of employees, effective work and continuity of production in a new emergency situation and, of course, preventing the pandemic spread of in the territories of the company’s presence. About 20 billion rubles were allocated for these purposes”, said Larisa Zelkova, senior vice president, head of HR, social policy and public relations.
The new standard of occupational safety at Nornickel is daily monitoring of personnel health, regular disinfection and provision of people with personal protective equipment. The enterprises have introduced a special shift regime in order to minimize the contact of workers with each other and to be able to process premises where there are a large number of people. Most of the company’s office workers switched to remote work, and for shift workers, the shift was extended and observers were equipped.
“As a socially responsible company, we had to restructure our work radically”, explained Larisa Zelkova. “We had a large program for organizing laboratories for prompt and high-quality testing of the company’s employees and city residents. The company purchased thermal imagers and provided people with personal protective equipment. An important point – a ban on staff reductions was adopted at Nornickel, and we were able to keep the same remuneration for all employees. In addition, when air traffic was interrupted last spring and a large number of our citizens remained outside Russia, we tried to help our employees who were on vacation at that time. The company has established a special headquarters to ensure the continuity of production and provide various support to the enterprises”.
Nornickel provided small and medium-sized businesses with credit and rental holidays, subsidized small companies for the delivery of goods to Norilsk, and NPOs – for utilities. Also, with the support of the company, projects were developed for the introduction of digital services for life during the pandemic. This applies primarily to distance education and trade. And, of course, the health care system, which received substantial resources from the company: machinery, equipment, medicines, personal protective equipment for health workers.
“I can say with great pride that Nornickel was one of the first large companies that seriously approached the issue of minimizing the risks associated with the spread of the coronavirus”, said Larisa Zelkova.
Text: Victor Tsaryov, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
