The work of metallurgists in the frontline regions of Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Donetsk are accompanied by large risk: enemy shelling takes place almost every day. The information about the Ukrainian companies' experience in protecting their employees, including Metinvest Group, is described in the Forbes Ukraine article "Work with the High Risk".
Forbes's journalists interviewed the heads of Metinvest Group's Zaporizhstal, Centravis, Interpipe Niko Tube and DTEK. The heads of the companies shared information how they ensure occupational safety and life safety of their employees. Below, we offer you an expanded version of the adapted material, supplemented by Metinvest's experience.
A metallurgical production, compared to other types of manufacturing, is a continuous process that demands constant presence of workers during production. Metallurgical equipment without supervision and control may cause more damage than enemy shelling. Therefore, special operation mode has been established across all enterprises of Metinvest Group since the beginning of full-scale invasion, ensuring employee safety and preventing equipment malfunctions. Here’s how it works at Zaporizhstal.
IMPORTANT! There are 16 shelters with unhindered access for workers to protect employees of Zaporizhstal. Shelters are equipped with reservoirs with drinking and technical water, long-term storage food, medicines. Shelters can accommodate up to 7500 employees at the same time.
More than 2000 people work at Zaporizhstal in a shift every day, however, according to words of a head of labour protection unit Oleg Astafiev, up to half of thousand of them don't leave their workplaces even during air alerts. These are workers what engaged in the continuous production processes as production of iron or casting of steel, and the operation of power equipment. Under these conditions, it's necessary to put on helmets or bulletproof vests. “Protection weighs 20 kg what makes already hard physical work even harder and takes place in hot rooms,” adds Maksym Ostrykh, a blast furnace operator of the company. Air alerts in Zaporizhzhia region happen quite often: there were 2022 cases in 2023, more only in Donetsk region. “On frontline it's more dangerous and harder than here,” adds a blast furnace operator Maksym Ostrykh.
The work under constant shelling puts psychological pressure on a person, says a shift supervisor at Zaporizhstal's thermal power plant Alexander Prischepa. Trainings on how to behave in emergency situations, which are regularly conducted at the company, helps to make it easier to act in stressful situations.
IMPORTANT! Zaporizhstal systematically conducts trainings on first aid and self-help in case of emergency situations. Zaporizhstal employees are studied how to stop bleeding, perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, act appropriately in the case of injury or deterioration of health at the workplace. There were held 2214 practical trainings during full-scale invasion.
"Trainings on first aid, stopping massive bleeding and appropriate actions in case of injury are conducted systematically at the enterprise and cover all workers of production units," says Oleg Astafiev.
Another important activity is providing employees with individual first aid kits for the duration of their shift. The enterprise purchased more than 2000 first aid kits with necessary components, what were distributed to all units.
IMPORTANT! The first aid kit includes a haemostatic tourniquet, a marker to record the time of its applying, a sterile bandage bag for bandaging a bleeding wound or tamponade, a memo or step-by-step instructions for using the haemostatic tourniquet, and a bag for storing and carrying the components.
One more challenge that can threaten manufacturers during military actions is energy. For the equipment of the large metallurgical enterprise sudden blackout can become the reason for destabilisation or breakdowns, what can lead to uncontrollable consequences.
For this reason, Zaporizhstal's specialists prepared algorithm of actions for each employee in all plant's units in case of an emergency shutdown. This algorithm will not only help to avoid emergency situations caused by power outage, but also to protect employees.
IMPORTANT! Trainings on making employees' actions automatic according to the instruction are conducted systematically. This approach will help to avoid panic and rash actions, provide skills to properly shut down equipment in case of an emergency power outage, and allow to restart equipment promptly and safely if necessary.
The third year of the full-scale war, the metallurgical industry is on the verge of survival. Under the conditions of constant shelling, threats of blackout, problems with logistics and staff. The motivation of Metinvest's metallurgists is the same for everyone: strengthening economic of Ukraine and hardening steel for Ukraine's victory.
Read the full article "Work with the High Risk" on the Forbes Ukraine website.
