17.01.2008 // Information Department of Leningrad NPP

The year 2007 has become a history: the chairman of the Trade Union of Leningrad NPP A.Zaytsev sums up the results of the year

Zaytsev says that the key event of the last year for Sosnovy Bor and for the whole country was the decision to start the construction of Leningrad NPP-2. Following this decision, Rosenergoatom Concern established Directorate for the Construction of LNPP-2. Today, the Directorate has almost 40 employees, mostly, people from Leningrad NPP. “This is not very good for our plant but very good for LNPP-2 as all of those people are professionals,” says Zaytsev.

— Isn’t it good that the new plant will have young professional workers trained at its prototype, Leningrad NPP? The plant that is supposed to be the key source of energy for the whole North-Western region must have professional workers, mustn’t it? 

— Yes, it must. But this “rotation” may cause certain problems?

— You mean that you will lose young specialists?

— We have no age limits, we are a state enterprise and we employ people of different age. We try to comply with the Labor Code, especially now that we are preparing for corporization. NPP is a serious production and we must not ignore the law in the field of labor and corporate relations. As you know, the key mission of a trade union is to protect the rights of employees. I am glad to inform you that on Nov 23 2007 we set up the trade union of LNPP-2.

— How many members does it have?

— It has enough members for a primary organization. The key point is that now we can provide social guarantees to the people working at LNPP-2. LNPP provides certain social benefits to its employees. When transferred to a new company, a person wants to have the same benefits he had at his former enterprise. As you may know, the social policy of a company is based on documents like collective agreement and in order to draft a collective agreement it is necessary to have the second party, Trade Union. Now LNPP-2 has both a trade union and a collective agreement and can provide social benefits.

True, we have lots of other problems: for example, housing, health care, holidays. These are very important problems as the employees of LNPP-2 will certainly be younger that the people working at LNPP. The newly formed trade union will try to solve all these problems. I am its chairman.

— Does the charter of your organization allow you to combine two offices?

— Yes, it does. In fact, this is quite economical: you don’t have to spend additional money on additional employees, you don’t have to get registered as legal entity and don’t have to waste time drafting some special collective agreement and, finally, it is convenient: it makes the work easier.

The collective agreement of LNPP-2 contains all the best points of the collective agreement of LNPP, but it is not a copy of the latter. The new collective agreement has been drafted by experienced specialists, members of our trade union. There are still some moot questions but we hope to solve them soon. 

We have solved one more important problem: we have formed a committee on social insurance. We do need such a committee. For example, our employee gets into car accident on weekend or when on holiday and is taken to the hospital; he was not driving the car, he just took a taxi, he was a bit tipsy but it was a free day. Does he have right to get a sick pay or not? Such problems are solved by the social insurance committee.   

Summer rest of children is also the sphere of the committee’s activity. As you may know, the Social Insurance Fund pays back part of the money a company transfers to it as compensation for the company’s expenses on the summer rest and recovery of the children of its employees. For example, last year LNPP got compensation worth 1.8mln RUR.

— And how much did you spend?

— We spent much more, but the compensation helps us to care for more children. True, the compensation is given upon certain conditions. For example, the holiday camps should have licenses, the holidays should last for no less than 21 days. So, you see that the social insurance committee is an important structure for any company caring for its employees and their children. The committee has four members: two represent the employers, two – the employer.

— Do you think that such a small trade union will be able to do all people expect it to do?

— Our trade union will help them. We have agreed that their fees will be transferred to our account but we are not going to spend their money; nor are we going to give them our money. They will have as much money as they have members. They will hold their own meetings, but current problems will be coordinated with me, as chairman. So, I think they will have no problems.

It is the first time in our industry when one person chairs two trade unions. The chairman of the Central Committee of Rosatom Trade Union Igor Fomichyov has approved our initiative. He even said that our experience might be applied in similar situations in the future, for example, at Novovoronezh NPP-2.

— This will certainly be helpful for the newly formed trade union.

— Yes, such form of support is quite effective. By the way, do you know that in 2006 our collective agreement – which serves as basis for the collective agreement of LNPP-2 – was proclaimed the second best collective agreement in Leningrad region. The jury comprised representatives of the Federation of Trade Unions and the governments of St.Petersburg and Leningrad region.

— And who was the best?

— The Pulp and Paper Plant. The jury was highly qualified and demanding. They analyzed not only the agreement itself but all the financial reports on its fulfillment.

— Like a real audit inspection.

— Yes. And, in conclusion, I would like to inform you about one more thing concerning all the people living in Sosnovy Bor. I mean public contracts with utility services, i.e. we should either accept them and agree to have relations with utility services or decline them and refuse. We have analyzed the contracts and have seen nothing good in them. This is a complex problem and I think that we can discuss it the next time.

— You are welcome.

Interview by Ludmila Romanova