24 November 2016
"AvtoVAZ" has found a new way to reduce staff numbers: employees will be not dismissed rather they will be transferred to associated enterprises. This staff reduction method is examined by Tatyana Nikolaenko, head of employment law at Khrenov & Partners.“AvtoVAZ plans to transfer some employees to enterprises that are its suppliers and located in Tolyatti, according to the announcement from the new company president Nicolas Moore who succeeded Bo Andersson last spring.
Suppliers will require additional workers as AvtoVAZ plans to increase within 3 years the share of local components that its uses by 10% said a company representative. However he went on to explain that the company is now negotiating to create jobs not only with suppliers, but also with companies from other industries. For example, Sberbank will be opening a call centre in Togliatti with 1,200 vacancies located in a building which was previously AvtoVAZ’s purchasing department.
Sberbank confirmed that former AvtoVAZ employees will be given priority when recruiting staff. While the situation with the transfer of personnel of AvtoVAZ to providers remains unclear, the plant is trying to solve the issue of surplus personnel using different methods. Between February and August the company introduced a shortened four-day working week. The plant will reinstate this shorter week as of October 17, 2016 until February 19, 2017. AvtoVAZ is also looking for ways to release people of pre-retirement and retirement age of whom there are more than 5,000. They will be able to leave the company voluntarily in exchange for their pension being supplemented for five years. The amount of the supplementary payment depends on their position in the company and will amount to several thousand rubles per month. The company will transfer the payments to a private pension fund.
Tatyana Nikolaenko, head of employment law at Khrenov & Partners believes this measure to be reasonable. She goes on to argue that after all the amount of money allocated to guaranteed employee benefits, is not comparable to the costs of maintaining those same employees in the workplace, even under conditions prevailing where there is a transition to a 3-4 day working week. The greater the number of workers dismissed according to this scheme, the more profitable it is for AvtoVAZ” according to Tatyana.
For the whole article in Russian click here
