Tag Archives: labour rights

ArcelorMittal cancels second pay rise for Kazakh workers

ALMATY, FEB. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — ArcelorMittal’s steel factory in Kazakhstan scrapped plans to raise workers’ salaries in June because of worries about continued weak market conditions for its products.

In January, ArcelorMittal increased salaries for its 14,000 workers at its steel plant in Temirtau, central Kazakhstan, by 6.8% and had promised another pay rise of 6.8% six months later, but in a letter to employees Vijay Mahadevan, the factory’s CEO, said that this was not now going to happen.

“Unfortunately, we have not fulfilled our plans for 2015, and therefore will not be able to pay the remainder of the wage increase this year,” he said.

“I know that this news will disappoint you, but no-one would benefit from a salary increase which will only put additional pressure on our company.”

A 50% drop in the value of the tenge and rise in inflation has hit workers’ real wages in Kazakhstan and forced many employers to raise salaries.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau is one of the biggest employers in Kazakhstan. It has had, though, tempestuous relations with its workers over salaries in the past few years and had to make thousands of staff redundant. The factory has added symbolic importance as President Nursultan Nazarbayev worked there before moving into politics.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakhstan’s ArcelorMittal increases salaries

JAN. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Steel-maker ArcelorMittal Temirtau said it would retroactively increase salaries for its workers by 6.8% from Jan.1, 2016. The company, a subsidiary of India’s ArcelorMittal, operates steel plants and coal mines in the Karaganda region in central Kazakhstan. In 2014 and 2015, the company argued with workers and the government over salaries and VAT refunds.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

40,000 workers in Kazakhstan face threat

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said 40,000 people working in the country’s oil and gas sector could lose their jobs next year if energy prices continued to stay low. He said the depressed price of oil had decimated the oil and gas sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Strike out in west of Kazakhstan

MAY 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 140 people working for the oil services company KazStroyService have gone on strike in west Kazakhstan demanding an increase in wages, media reported. Kazakhstan is sensitive to strikes. In 2011, 16 people died during fighting between protesters and police at a strike in west Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Kazakh region criticises ArcelorMittal

MARCH 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The government of the Karaganda region has said that ArcelorMittal’s temporary move to knock 25% off its workers’ wages at its steel plant in Temirtau last month was illegal, the Tengrinews website reported. It has filed a lawsuit against ArcelorMittal, one of Kazakhstan’s biggest foreign investors.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

AcerlorMittal cuts workers’ salaries in Kazakhstan

FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — ArcelorMittal, the Luxembourg-based steel manufacturer, said it had temporarily cut salaries for workers at its plant in Temirtau near Karaganda, central Kazakhstan, by 25. ArcelorMittal has struggled to make the plant profitable over the last few years. It has cut its workforce at the plant to 17,000 from over 20,000.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Kazakhmys cuts projects

FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhmys, one of the biggest employers in Kazakhstan, said it was stopping work on a handful of side projects and making 2,000 people redundant. Kazakhmys’ main product is copper although it employs thousands more people in support businesses such as coal mining. The news piles more pressure on Kazakhstan’s economy.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Fatal off-shore accident occurred in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea

NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An oil rig partially collapsed in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, killing at least one worker. This was the second fatal accident on Azerbaijan’s off-shore energy sector in less than a month, throwing up general safety concerns.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)

Workers strike in west Kazakhstan

JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers at an oil services company that supplies equipment to the Kashagan oil project in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea have gone on strike, media reported.

Since a strike by oil workers in west Kazakhstan ended in 2011 in clashes with police and 15 people being killed, the authorities have been ultra-sensitive to industrial action, so news that workers have walked out of Tuplar Energy Serves Company (TESCO) complaining of late salary payments will frustrate them.

TESCO have responded that their main client, the Australian company WorleyParsons hasn’t paid their invoices on time. WorleyParsons hasn’t commented.

The importance of this latest strike action in west Kazakhstan is not who is ultimately responsibly, no doubt lawyers will thrash this out, but the impact on the local community. If people aren’t working and aren’t being paid that means less cash in the local economy, increasing frustration and resentment of the increasingly rich political elite.

One disgruntled worker told the lada.kz news website: “I came here to work and establish a family, now I can’t find another job, the company hasn’t paid me for six months and the banks are pressuring me about my mortgage.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

ArcelorMittal to cut 1,000 jobs

MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Temirtau steel plant in central Kazakhstan, owned by Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, said that it would make 1,000 workers redundant in order to cut costs.

Outside the energy sector, the Temirtau steel plant is one of Kazakhstan’s biggest industrial operations.

It’s been trying to navigate through a difficult period, though. The combination of sanctions on Iran, previously the factory’s biggest client, and the general global economic weakness combined to knock profits and it has steadily laid off workers over the past couple of years.

At the end of last year, reports surfaced that it would look to cut around 2,500 people from its workforce of about 14,500. This now appears to have been watered down.

There hasn’t been an official statement from the company but state-backed TV channel Astana quoted Dmitry Pavlov, head of human resources at the plant, saying that the work force would be cut by only 1,000 people.

Temirtau is a classic Soviet style monogorod. The plant is the heart and soul of the city and, although the job losses appear to be limited, they will still have a large trickle-down impact.

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)