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AGREEMENT 
Between 
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CHEMICAL, ENERGY, MINE AND GENERAL WORKERS’ UNIONS, 
RUSSIAN OIL AND GAS WORKERS UNION 
 
And 
OPEN JOINT STOCK COMPANY 
«OIL COMPANY LUKOIL» 
 
1. PREAMBLE 
This Agreement is between the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), Russian Oil and Gas Workers Union (ROGWU) and Open Joint Stock Company «Oil company LUKOIL» (LUKOIL). 
 
Concluding this agreement, the Parties confirm their full commitment to the principles contained in the UN Global Compact initiative, as well as the principles concerning labour and environmental issues defined in the UN and ILO core documents and conventions. 
 
The Parties also count on the adequate initiatives of the other participants of the global market, as well as good partnership with the state and society. 
 
The purpose of the Agreement is to create an open channel of information and dialogue between ICEM and LUKOIL. This dialogue will be between LUKOIL and the ICEM at international level, and management of the LUKOIL Group enterprises and trade unions at the local and national levels. The aim of the Agreement is to continuously improve industrial relations, and develop good work practices in LUKOIL worldwide operations. 
 
The Agreement covers all activities and operations where LUKOIL has direct control. Where LUKOIL does not have overall control it will exercise its best efforts in order to secure compliance with the standards and principles set out in the Agreement. LUKOIL will notify its contractors, licensees and major suppliers of the existence of the Agreement and encourage them to comply with the standards and principles contained within it. 
 
LUKOIL and ICEM affirm their support for fundamental human rights in the communities affected by LUKOIL Group activities and in the workplace. Furthermore, the Parties recognise the importance of protecting the health, safety and well being of those at work, and share a sense of joint responsibility for the impact that work and company practices may have upon the natural and human environment. 
The Agreement is intended to ensure the best possible standards of protection for those employed in and affected by LUKOIL Group business operations and activities. 
 
There is common recognition by the Parties of the principles and standards contained within this Agreement and LUKOIL's own values as expressed in their ‘Social Code of OAO LUKOIL’. The purpose is to monitor the practical application of the Agreement and to discuss any improvements in working practices or positive contributions the Parties may make to the eradication of poverty, furthering personal development and the protection of LUKOIL Group workers, through the best economic, social and sustainable development principles. 
 
These obligations are taken by LUKOIL voluntarily, and may be additional to formal legal requirements in the countries, where LUKOIL Group is operating 
 
2. HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
2.1 LUKOIL respects fundamental human rights and will be guided in its operations by the provisions of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 
 
2.2. Highly valuating additional opportunities arising from natural and cultural diversity of the employed workers and heritage of the population in the areas of LUKOIL Group operations, LUKOIL will base its work on the following principles: 
 
2.2.1. Respect and support of traditions of national tolerance and appreciation, respect and protection of national and cultural traditions, art and craftsmanship in the regions of the LUKOIL Group Business activity. 
 
2.2.2. Respect of religious beliefs and habits of the workers and local population. 
 
3. TRADE UNION RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS AT WORK PLACE 
 
LUKOIL will respect trade union rights, including rights secured in the core ILO conventions: 
 
3.1. The right of every employee to be represented by a union of his or her own choice and to basic trade union rights as defined by ILO Conventions 87 and 98 covering freedom of association and the right to organise, as well as the right to engage in collective bargaining. LUKOIL therefore agrees not to oppose efforts to unionise its employees. 
 
3.2. Not to employ any kind of forced or bonded labour as proscribed in the ILO Conventions 29 and 105 or otherwise. 
 
3.3. Not to employ child labour as proscribed by ILO Convention 138 and 182. 
 
3.4. To promote, and ensure equality of opportunity and treatment in employment, including equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, and the prevention of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation as required by ILO Conventions 100 and 111 respectively. 
 
3.5. To take a socially responsible approach to restructuring its units and organizations under its control, as well as to de-localization of the production facilities, including adequate advance notification of LUKOIL Group plans to reduce workplaces. 
 
3.6. To pay fair wages and benefits, as a minimum in accordance with industry standards in the country concerned. 
 
3.7. Taking into consideration that stable business operations of the LUKOIL Group enterprises depend on the recruitment of qualified and competent young workers, LUKOIL policy will be aimed at combining work obligations of the young workers with the opportunity for them to develop professional skills and qualities. 
 
3.8 LUKOIL respects family values and will practically implement provisions of the ILO Convention 156 (workers with family responsibilities), paying special attention to defending rights of the working women, expectant mothers, nursing mothers and women with large families. 

 
4. HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 
 
4.1 LUKOIL and ICEM will cooperate to ensure that their activities are carried out with the fullest possible regard for health, safety and the environment. In particular this will include: 
 
4.1.1 Implementation of the core principle, that protection of life and health of the worker has topmost priority; 
 
4.1.2. Committing to provide a safe and healthy work environment, deploying common "best practice" standards; 
 
4.1.3. Implementing the principles of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work; 
 
4.1.4.Supporting a precautionary approach to health, safety and environmental challenges; 
 
4.1.5.Undertaking initiatives to promote greater health, safety and environmental responsibility; 
 
4.1.6. Encouraging the development and diffusion of safe and environmentally friendly technologies. Promoting and reviewing the education and training of both management and workers on health, safety and environmental awareness and protection, including, as appropriate, joint union/management education and training programs. 
 
4.2. LUKOIL, being a major user of natural resources and recognizing its responsibility to society for preserving good environment and efficient use of natural resources, will: 
 
4.2.1. Consistently seek to identify and investigate hazards and threats to health within LUKOIL Group production facilities, and will take action to eliminate them or mitigate their impacts; 
 
4.2.2. Periodically supply information and supports an open dialogue with all parties interested in LUKOIL activities in industrial and environmental safety; 
 
4.2.3. Publish reports about its operations, and results of assessment of impact on the environment, personnel and population. 
 
5. IMPLEMENTATION 
 
Annual Meeting 
 
5.1. LUKOIL and ICEM will meet annually to review practice and experience of the agreed principles as part of the follow-up to this Agreement. The purpose shall be to discuss the issues covered by the Agreement with a view to agreeing joint actions that will further develop good working practices. In addition to general industrial issues and health, safety and environmental matters, the following topics may be addressed: 
 
5.1.1. General corporate policy on employment, occupational health, safety and environmental issues and challenges affecting those within the LUKOIL Group and, as appropriate, between LUKOIL and its related companies, including suppliers and subcontractors; 
 
5.1.2. Training and education matters, issues affecting the exercise of trade union rights, other issues mutually agreed. 
 
5.2. Participants at these annual review meetings will normally be 3-5 senior officials representing the ICEM, ROGWU and relevant managers from LUKOIL. 
 
5.3. International Network of Trade Union Representatives 
 
The ICEM, supported and assisted by LUKOIL, will establish an international network of trade union representatives to ensure effective communication and exchange of information between union representatives at the LUKOIL Group enterprises. 
 
In support of the network LUKOIL will provide e-mail access to union representatives in LUKOIL Group enterprises for communication, and facilitate annual meetings of union representatives from each location participating in the network. This will require paid time off, the payment of travel and accommodation costs, plus providing translation and interpretation. 
 
5.4. Local Industrial Relations Practices 
 
The Agreement between the Parties shall be applied consistently throughout LUKOIL operations. It is not intended that this agreement replace or substitute the results of collective bargaining and valid tariff agreements, or interfere with local industrial relations practices related to information exchange, problem solving and negotiations, rather it is intended to supplement these processes. The Parties to the Agreement respect the principle that industrial relations issues are best resolved as close as possible to the place of work. 
 
5.5. Training Programmes 
 
ICEM and LUKOIL will cooperate in developing joint training arrangements covering those issues dealt with in this Agreement, and their implementation. This will include appropriate training in health, safety and environmental best practice for union delegates from countries where LUKOIL operates. It will also include management-training programmes within LUKOIL Group. LUKOIL may cover the cost of ICEM participation in LUKOIL training programmes subject to Agreement. 
 
5.6. Information 
 
5.6.1. ICEM will distribute copies of the Agreement to all its member unions, including those that organise employees in LUKOIL companies around the world, and will broadly publicise the existence of the Agreement and explain its implications to the unions organising workers within LUKOIL. 
 
5.6.2. LUKOIL will in the same manner distribute copies of the Agreement to all LUKOIL offices in the relevant local languages of the countries concerned. 
 
6. ADMINISTRATION 
 
The General Secretary of the ICEM, or his appointed representative and the LUKOIL President, or his appointed representative will be ultimately responsible for the administration of the Agreement. 
 
7. OTHER CONDITIONS 
 
 
This Agreement is signed in two languages, English and Russian, having equal legal power. 
 
8. DURATION AND EVALUATION 
 
The duration of this Agreement is initially for one year, after which it will be subject to review prior to being extended for a further period. 

 
LUKOIL 
Vagit Alekperov 
 
ICEM 
Fred Higgs 
 
 
ROGWU 
Lev Mironov

Text of the Global Framework Agreement between Lukoil and ICEM

Privacy Policy

An emotional battle by paperworkers affiliated with Turkish union Selülöz-Is in Izmit against the government of Turkey's plan to privatize a paper producer has gained the full support of the 20-million-member ICEM. Over 700 members of the ICEM-affiliated union together with family members have occupied the Izmit location of Turkish Cellulose and Paper Factories (SEKA) now since 20 January. 
<img height="364" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/seka1.JPG" width="228"/>
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs 
at rally in Izmit 
The workers, buoyed by strong community support, are resisting an 8 November 2004 decree by Turkey's High Commission of Privatization that would essentially shut their factory. That closure met a temporary reprieve late in January when the Ninth Administrative Court in Ankara suspended the decree until the High Commission submits further arguments for privatization. 
 
In the meantime, the government has tried to diffuse the mass mobilization aimed at keeping the paper factory open by transferring 250 workers to another SEKA factory-a mill that has not operated in 22 months-and employing another 180 in Izmit for three to four months removing equipment. Turkish privatization law would then mandate SEKA to offer minimal pay to the other workers for a 10-month term as temporary workers. 
 
This is unacceptable to Selülöz-Is, and to the ICEM. 
 
Speaking at a rally of workers and community supporters in Izmit on 10 February, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs sent a clear message to the Turkish government. "Rather than investing in bribes to workers to give up their jobs and in unemployment costs, the government should make a relatively modest investment to make this company viably sound that will preserve the livelihoods of a loyal workforce." 
<img height="233" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/seka2.JPG" width="350"/>
Affiliate Selülöz-Is is receiving 
vast community support in Izmit to keep a paper mill open. 
The Turkish union believes an investment of US$5-6 million in SEKA would allow the company to produce various grades of paper making the company globally competitive. 
 
Selülöz-Is is critical of the government for spending huge sums of money over the years on consultative fees to determine the exact valuation of SEKA rather that machine investment. Galvanized now by support from workers, their families and the Izmit community, the union is prepared to continue the plant occupation until the government rescinds the privatization decree.

Workers Resist Privatisation, Vow to Keep Paper Mill Open

Seven separate coal mine disasters in China over the past month have claimed 102 lives. On 3 August, 13 miners suffocated after a wooden support caught fire with flames spreading throughout shafts rapidly. The fire occurred at the illegal Taodingshan mine, Handan county, Hebei province. A day earlier on 2 August, a gas leak caused an explosion at the privately-run legal mine of Xingfa in Wenshu township, Henan province,killing 26. Managers of the mine fled the scene after the deadly accident.On 27 July, 14 miners perished due to a gas blast and ventilation shaft collapse at the village-run Fengxiangpo coal mine, Kaiyang county, Guizhou province. On 23 July, four miners were poisoned and died underground by gas at a mine in Tanghou village, Shaanxi province. And in the same province on 19 July at the Jinsuo mine near Tongchaun, 26 coal miners were killed when a gas explosion occurred. On 17 July, four miners were trapped by flooding while three escaped at the small-scale Xigou mine in Xin’an county, Henan province. On 14 July, a faulty explosives detonation caused collapse of an underground cave full of water, drowning 16 miners. That happened at the Fusheng mine near Xingning city, Guangdong province. Authorities in China on 21 July closed a total of 5,290 mines in which owners had failed to apply for safety permits.

Death Again Visits China's Coal Mines

An ongoing lockout by an investment house against chemical workers of US affiliate International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) has reinforced the ruthlessness capital wreaks on US unions when a manufacturing enterprise changes hands. 
In Meredosia, Illinois, chemicals company Celanese owned by equity trader Blackstone Group locked out workers 6 June, four months after buying the emulsions, adhesives and polymers plant. 
<img height="147" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USABoilermakers.gif" width="125" alt=""/>
The crime of the 148 workers: refusal to accept steep concessions to their health care plan, opposing the company's plans to lose 41 jobs to contract labour and dissatisfaction with a three-year wage freeze. When workers again voted down the proposed cuts late in June, Celanese responded by harshly proposing 20-40% pay cuts. The ICEM has issued a Circular to all affiliates, and trade unions across the world are encouraged to respond to IBB Local Branch 484.

Harsh Lockout of Boilermakers Union in US

In South Africa, a statement was released by a coalition of trade unions, including ICEM affiliates NUM and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), expressing serious concern about possible job losses after the merger of the 7 power distribution business units of Eskom and those of the municipalities, consisting of 187 licensed municipal distributors. According to an industry restructuring document, about 1,000 jobs could be lost a year. The report contradicts statements by the Electricity Distribution Holdings (EDI), the state-owned company set up to reform the sector, which said that no jobs would be lost during the restructuring.

Unions Fear SA Electric Merger Migh Mean Job Cuts

A strike that hit most of Turkey's tyre industry from 28 April onwards has been "postponed" by government decree. 
 
Under a frequently abused legal pretext, the Turkish cabinet claimed that the tyre strike was a threat to national security. 
 
It then invoked Article 33 of Turkey's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes And Lock-Outs. This allows the government to suspend any strike or lock-out for sixty days if it is deemed to endanger "public health or national security". 
 
To apply this law to a tyre strike is obviously absurd. The move will certainly damage the Turkish government's reputation at a time when it is trying to prove its democratic credentials in a bid to join the European Union. 
 
Moreover, "postponement" of a strike under this legislation usually amounts in practice to an indefinite ban, because Article 34 of the same law empowers the labour ministry to impose arbitration at the end of the sixty days, unless the parties have either come to an agreement or voluntarily sought arbitration. 
 
Turkey's official arbitrators rarely decide in a union's favour. 
 
The decree "postpones" strike action at the three main multinationals affected by the dispute - Pirelli, Goodyear and Bridgestone. It was signed on 5 May by President Süleyman Demirel, Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit and the entire Turkish cabinet. 
 
The Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is had been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide. 
 
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies proposed to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time. 
 
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power. 
 
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are affected by the strike ban.

Turkish Tyre Strike Banned

Globalised labour relations take a step forward this week as the world's industrial trade union leaders meet in Brussels to select target companies for global networks and agreements. 
 
The union leaders from all continents are taking part in the Presidium and Executive Committee sessions of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The Brussels meetings, from 31 May to 2 June, are the first since the ICEM World Congress in Durban, South Africa, last November. 

<img height="285" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/exec2.jpg" width="380"/> 
 
ICEM Executive in Brussels
That Congress set the ICEM a target of global campaigning and networking within major multinationals in its sectors. It also mandated the ICEM to negotiate global agreements with companies, notably on trade union rights, health, safety and environment and equality at work. 
 
The aim is to ensure consistently high standards worldwide by securing the right of the ICEM and its member unions to monitor companies' global performance on these and other issues, and to raise any alleged breaches of the agreements with corporate headquarters management. 
 
This is the crucial difference between global agreements and companies' own self-declared and self-assessed codes of conduct. The ICEM emphasises that such agreements are also in the best interests of the companies and their stakeholders, as they give substance and credibility to corporate ethics. 
 
New ICEM President John Maitland and General Secretary Fred Higgs were elected on a platform of achieving global agreements and of creating the necessary global trade union networks within the companies concerned. 
 
Target multinationals under discussion this week are headquartered in Germany, France, Japan, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. 
 
"Dialogues are currently underway with, among others, Shell, Rio Tinto, BP Amoco and Freudenberg," Higgs said. "In a number of cases, draft texts have been exchanged. Discussions are particularly far advanced with Freudenberg, the German-headquartered rubber multinational. We hope to finalise an agreement with them by the end of June." 
 
The ICEM already has a company-level global agreement with oil multinational Statoil. 
 
Talks are continuing with the chemical companies' world body, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), over plans for the first-ever global sectoral agreement. This would concern the chemical companies' Responsible Care programme, which aims to achieve the highest standards of occupational health and safety and of environmental protection. ICEM participation in the monitoring and implementation of Responsible Care would help to ensure consistently high standards worldwide. 
 
"We are already in a serious dialogue with the ICCA," Higgs said. "By the time we meet them again in Tokyo this November, we will be very close to signing a global agreement on Responsible Care."

World Unions Set Targets For Global Agreements

J ustice has finally arrived for a group of mineworkers in Australia-but more than five-and-a-half years late. 
 
Four of 16 miners at three Rio Tinto coal mines in Central Queensland who were sacked 21 July 1998 will walk back to their jobs Monday at the Blair Athol mine. The miners are members of ICEM affiliate Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia, and the union will mark their return with a Guard of Honour at the workplace entrance. 
 
The four were part of 16 staunch trade unionists sacked by Rio Tinto subsidiary Pacific Coal in 1998. The miners were discharged after the company conducted one-sided "performance reviews" that effectively placed them on a black list in the mining areas of Queensland. 
 
Two others will be reinstated by Rio Tinto at its nearby Hail Creek mine on 8 March. The fate of ten others is still in the hands of Rio Tinto. After some three years of legal wrangling, the Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ruled last year that the 16 were unfairly dismissed and must be given re-employment preference by Rio Tinto. 
 
Although the company is appealing that ruling, it has complied with reinstatement of the six. 
 
"Rio Tinto should go the whole hog and get them all back on the job," said the Miners Union General President Tony Maher. "These men and their families have suffered more than enough. It's time Rio did the right thing and get them all back on the job so their families can finally rebuild their lives and look to the future with the confidence they deserve." 
 
"Hopefully, this puts closure to one of the sorriest chapters in mining labour relations the world over," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. "The ICEM now calls on Rio Tinto to put this whole dispute behind and recall the remaining the ten workers."

Blair Athol Miners Return to Work in Australia

ICEM Electric Power affiliate SRPSKA in Bosnia-Herzegovina repledged its commitment against privatisation at its annual Congress last week. Mirko Dukic stepped down as president of the union to accept a position with a newly founded regional public-sector workers’ confederation. Dusko Vrhovac was elected to replace him.

Bosnia Electric Power Affiliate Pledges Against Privatisation

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