Metinvest Group immediately introduced a set of measures to protect employees of the company's enterprises after the WHO announced a coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Zaporizhstal allocated UAH 26.2 million to implement a comprehensive quarantine program in 2020. Anti-epidemic measures at the plant have been extended in 2021 as well.
“One of the key tasks of 2020 for us was to protect a large team of the enterprise from the risk of the spread of coronavirus. The mill has taken unprecedented measures, realizing that protecting our employees is protecting their families, protecting the contractors who work with us. We managed to keep production, our team, wages at the pre-crisis level, "said the General Director of Zaporizhstal Alexander Mironenko.
Since the introduction of quarantine in March and until the end of 2020, Zaporizhstal purchased and provided the team with personal protective equipment: about 2.5 million masks, more than 31 thousand liters of antiseptic agents for hand disinfection, more than 400 thousand pairs of gloves. In health centers, canteens, at the main checkpoints of the enterprise, 35 recirculators were installed, which ensure continuous air disinfection in the premises. In addition to them, automatic thermal screening systems were installed at the checkpoints - 12 terminals, in order to fix suspected carriers of the virus at the entrance to the plant. More than 1,200 more contact and 30 non-contact thermometers were transferred to the departments to provide temperature screening in teams during the working day.
Zaporizhstal provides employees with everything necessary for treatment in the event of COVID-19 disease and compensates for the costs of diagnostics. In 2020, the plant allocated about UAH 2.2 million for these purposes alone. In addition, the company has undertaken the costs of seasonal vaccination of employees against influenza, allocating more than 400 thousand hryvnia for this purpose. The plant allocated another UAH 12 million to provide corporate health insurance for Zaporizhstal residents.
Recall that from the first days of the pandemic, an operational headquarters to combat COVID-19 began work at Zaporizhstal. Among the measures to reduce the risk of disease are the removal of administrative personnel to a remote mode of work, providing the plant employees with protective equipment, conducting multiple temperature screening, disinfection of workplaces, household facilities and corporate buses, expanding the network of corporate transport routes.
Let us remind you that Metinvest was included in the TOP-50 best employers in Ukraine according to Forbes magazine. It is noted that a flexible HR-strategy helped Metinvest keep the team in the crisis.
