Metinvest Pokrovskvugillia realizes the potential of female employees in the conditions of war – The Monitor

Pokrovsk Mine Management, which is a part of the Metinvest Pokrovskvugillia Company, is one of the newest coal mines in Ukraine, which quickly began to realize the potential of female employees. This is stated in a report by The Christian Science Monitor (The Monitor), the company reports.

The war created significant challenges for Metinvest Pokrovskvugillia. Before the war, about 8,000 employees worked here, now their number has decreased to about 6,000. About 1,000 company employees were mobilized to the Ukrainian army, and about 1,500 people moved to safer regions with their families. In total, as a result of the war, more than 130 employees of enterprises and their family members died, and 232 were injured.

In response to the challenges of a full-scale invasion, female employees of the company are taking on more workloads and occupying more critical positions.

As Andrii Akulych, general director of Metinvest Pokrovskvugillia, noted, women make up a third of the staff compared to almost a quarter before the war. Those who stay often do so to care for elderly relatives who are either unable or unwilling to leave. Women are looking for work in the mine due to the shortage of jobs in various industries, as most supermarkets and schools in the region are closed.

Akulych explained that traditionally, women in a coal mine were limited to positions such as hoist operator or administrator of the facilities where miners receive lanterns and oxygen equipment. Such professions were considered suitable for women, because they did not involve hard physical labor underground.

«Women have replaced men in some underground occupations, such as pumping station and electric machine operators. There used to be enough men to do the job. Women were not interested in it,» he said.

However, the war destroyed the usual ideas about what women could and could not cope with.

The training center Metinvest Pokrovskvugillia also adapted to the new realities. If earlier the center had about 100 students per month, now it is twice as many, and among them there are a few women. Every month, two to five female students are trained to work in underground positions.

Coal mining, the publication notes, is not the only industry where the war has destroyed traditional gender barriers. Women have also entered other traditionally male occupations, such as driving buses or long-haul trucks. Since in Ukraine motor vehicles are now important for the import and export of goods, the participation of women in these professions is vital.

As Ella Libanova, director of the Institute of Demography and Social Research named after M.V. Birds, today Ukraine would not survive without the contribution of women to the economy. She reminded that 4 million Ukrainian women of working age went abroad.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in the conditions of full-scale Russian aggression, Ukrainian iron and steel companies took a range of measures to support their employees and preserve labor teams – from financial and psychological assistance to assistance in relocation and new employment. And this is despite a 70 percent drop in production volumes in 2022 and the loss of 40 percent of all steelmaking capacity.