More than 2 years of the full-scale war, which resulted in mobilisation, displacement of people to safer regions and partial migration abroad, have left Metinvest's enterprises in Kryvyi Rih with a significant shortage of workers. To partially solve this problem, the recruitment team increased the number of women hired for stereotypically male jobs.
This winter, a new employee, Aliona Bezkrovna, joined the Pelletising Shop No.2 (PS-2) at Northern GOK. Out of all the jobs offered to her, she chose the most challenging one - pelletiser operator. The extensive job description, 12-hour shifts, hard physical labour and responsibility did not scare the new employee. For several months, she worked as an apprentice to an experienced machine operator, and then was allowed to work independently.
Aliona Bеzkrovna
"When I came to Northern GOK, I had no experience of working in such a production facility. I had previously worked in another industry. But recently, my family has felt the lack of stable income more strongly, so I decided to try something new for myself. It turned out to be very interesting, and the main thing is that I am good at my job. My main task is to maintain the stability of the pelletising process. I monitor the size so that the concentrate is neither dry nor too wet. Somewhere we add water, and somewhere we add dry concentrate to make sure that we end up with pellets of a standard size. I understand that someone needs to be here for the guys to stand strong at the front," says Aliona BЕZKROVNA.
Andrii Steblii, deputy head of Pelletising Shop #2 on production and planning, said that before the war, such jobs were held mainly by men, because pelletising machine operators are about strength, endurance and attentiveness. However, he has no complaints about Aliona's work. He says that women are even more responsible and follow the health and safety rules more carefully. In the pelletising shop, women mostly work as conveyor and pump operators and dosing operators, but they have now proved to be good at pelletising as well.
Young Olha Patrakova is still working as an apprentice electrician at the railway signalling, centralisation and interlocking (SC&I) repair and maintenance section at Northern GOK. Leonid Tynin, an experienced site manager, says that he has been short-staffed lately, and new employees have been coming in to replace his mobilised colleagues. He says that women used to work as electricians on the railway until now, but their workplaces were at stations. Working on the tracks or "in the field", as railway workers say, was the priority of men. They had to check, adjust and repair cable communications, traffic lights and switches directly on the tracks. And this is not an easy physical job.
Nevertheless, Olga Patrakova is preparing to work in the field and is carefully studying the specifics of an electrician's work on the railway. The girl has a degree in electrical engineering and is consciously deepening her knowledge and skills. When asked about the difficulties of a "man's" job, she answers with a smile, saying that she knows what she is doing and is fully prepared for it. She understands that today it doesn't matter much whether you are a man or a woman, because you have to do what you know how to do and where you are needed.
"We are already seeing that the labour market is experiencing a significant shortage of male workers, and we predict that this trend will only grow in the future. Therefore, we are ready to increase the percentage of female employees hired or retrained in specialities traditionally considered to be male. At the same time, we will ensure that working conditions for women at our enterprises are comfortable and safe," said Andrii SHERBAK, HR and Social Affairs Director at Metinvest's Northern GOK.
