"There was work to all this policy"

The reasons for the closure of the Roshen factory in Lipetsk are understandable, it seems, to everyone

In Lipetsk, the Roshen confectionery factory belonging to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko closes. Until recently, the production of Ukrainian sweets in Russia remained a profitable business, but by 2017, the Russian enterprise Poroshenko was under the attack of two sides at once. The property of the factory is under the arrest in the criminal case of embezzlement, Ukrainian patriots accuse Poroshenko that, paying taxes in the Russian treasury, he finances the enemy. Now 697 people will be fired from the factory.

There is no other work in Lipetsk for these people.

A quarter before the Roshen passing factory on the Dovator Street begins to smell of burning pastries. They don’t let me into the territory, referring to the order of the general director: no contacts with the press. A gloomy middle -aged man leaves the factory with a quick step, answers my question without turning around.

- Do you work here?

- Not anymore.

Near the gate, the board of ads. A smiling stiffer in the headphones sculpts a fresh piece of paper: "A janitor is required." The employee coming out to meet him anger with anger and turns to me: “Here, they need a janitor. Yesterday they glued about the seller in Pyaterochka, they were smeared with them here, or what? "

The woman says that she works in a cookie baking workshop, provides a sick mother and two children. At the factory, they were recommended to contact the city employment center. But she considers it pointless, because there are still no confectionery factories in the region, there is only a bakery. There, her qualifications will not help her with anything, she will not go to the age of 49, and you can get a job in the “Pyaterochka” on an ad.

In October 2016, Vladimir Putin, during the discussion of the Valdai club, commented on reports that the Roshen factory was allegedly taken from Petro Poroshenko. He called the counterpart “a large investor to the Russian economy”: “The factory works rhythmically, pays salaries, makes a profit, and there are no restrictions, the factory has problems with non -return of VAT, which led to temporary difficulties.”

After the statement of Vladimir Putin, the factory leadership and the local administration were counting on improving the situation, a return to the previous turnover. But everything went on a different scenario. After the criminal case was initiated, the factory underwent a number of restrictions on the part of Rospotrebnadzor, export of products to the CIS countries was discontinued, and the volume of production has significantly decreased. The result was the first wave of mass reductions: from 1800 staff, the staff decreased to 700.

Then, at the request of the Investigative Committee, the Basmann District Court of Moscow arrested the real estate of the factory and land plots on which there are corps and storage facilities. The total value of the arrested property is estimated at 2 billion rubles.

The decision on the arrest allows the use of property, but prohibits any operations with it (sale, alienation). This makes the sale of Roshen impossible.

REFERENCE
On April 1, 2015, employees of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Lipetsk Region and the Investigative Committee, accompanied by riot police, blocked the work of all structural units of LCF Roshen. The searches and seizures of documents and computer equipment at the enterprise and at the place of residence of its management were carried out. Later, law enforcement agencies explained the events in Lipetsk by the investigation of the criminal case on theft of 180 million rubles by illegal reimbursement of value added tax from the budget of the Russian Federation during the construction of the third production site of LKF Roshen.

Lipetsk confectionery factory was purchased in 2001. Prior to the initiation of a criminal case, the introduction of restrictive measures and a drop in production revolutions, 1800 employees worked at the factory. In 2011, the revenue of the enterprise from the main type of activity (service for processing long -distance raw materials, for the production of confectionery: cookies, sweets, caramel) amounted to over 1.9 billion rubles. Compared to 2010, the volume of revenue increased by 16.71%. In natural indicators, the confectionery factory produced 121 thousand 724.12 tons of products in 2011. The profit from sales amounted to almost 471.1 million rubles - 62.3 million rubles more than a year earlier. Net profit amounted to 307.5 million rubles. Since mid -2013, production volumes have been reduced by half.

“You probably want some revelations, but I can’t say anything bad about the factory,” says Maria (the name of the employee was changed at her request) , who worked in the confectionery workshop for 8 years. “It’s very sorry that everything happens like that.” Recently, we were shaking periodically. Either the riot police were not released twice from the shift, then the boycott was announced to our candies, because of this there was a decrease in production, mass reduction of people, tears, and resentment. No one wants to part with work in the factory, I hardly find a place like this. ”

Maria adds that after the last events - inspections in the framework of the criminal case, the arrest of property - employees discussed among themselves the possibility of closing the factory, but no one expected that this would happen so soon. The leadership did not report such an opportunity, people were not ready. In her opinion, there is a big policy to blame for everything, but they did not give any explanations to employees, except for the notorious “economic reasons”. Most of her colleagues plan to contact the employment center, but only in order to get a salary in the third month after dismissal: “There will never be normal vacancies there, you will have to look for it ourselves - and for a long time.”

The deputy director of the Lipetsk City Employment Center Inna Baikova says that the factory management submitted to the center a statement on the need to employ 697 released due to the complete stop and conservation of the Roshen factory. The dismissal process will stretch from April to December 2017, after which about 20 employees will remain in the factory who will be part of the liquidation commission.

The center had to engage in the employment of a large number of Roshen workers after the first wave of abbreviations in 2015. After this, the situation of the factory gradually improved, many of the then employees fired then expected to return to Roshen soon. In the past few months, the factory began to need hired workers, vacancies were regularly received.

“People sought to get to Roshen, the leadership took a lot of care about working conditions,” says Baikova. - They even took schoolchildren on excursions - showed how the sweets were doing.

Yes, and there are no salaries of such in the region, no matter how we try now, we will not be able to offer them the same level of wages. ”

The deputy director of the center also notes that additional difficulties will arise in a small number of narrow specialists who worked directly with sweets and baking of cookies, because there are no confectionery factories in the region.

Catherine (the name was also changed) worked at Roshena for 10 years, and for the past year and a half has been on vacation on childcare. “In the three territories of the factory, we who went on maternity leave - 20 people, and there are also those who are going. They will probably give some compensation, but we know nothing at all. I have not gone to the factory yet: I have no one to leave the child with. And representatives of the leadership did not contact me in any way. ”

According to the employee, it is almost impossible to find work with comparable wages. Catherine began to engage in viewing vacancies, but there is nothing comparable in the labor market now. Ten years ago, when she was just starting to work on Roshena, things went much better than in recent years, production was constantly expanding, modern equipment was imported, and conducted training with it. “And then the big people quarreled, and we arrested equipment and warehouses, reduced more than half of the staff. Until all this policy, the work was stable, and now it was gone at all, ”Catherine concludes.

On the eve of my arrival at the city hall of the city of Lipetsk, a meeting was held, where the issues of employees of the Roshen factory were discussed. The press secretary of the city hall reports that representatives of trade unions, employees of the employment center, and the city administration of the city administration were attended by the meeting; Representatives of the factory were not present. Representatives of the administration proposed organizing a consultation station in the territory of the factory itself, but the management of Roshen did not consider it necessary.

The parties to the conflict failed to come to a consensus on why the factory closes right now. In January, as part of a working visit to Lipetsk, the chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko met with representatives of the regional administration. Matvienko was asked about the possible nationalization of the factory, but she left the answer.

“There is definitely no policy in the closure of the factory - at least from Russia,” said Valentina Matvienko. - No one prevented the factory to work under Russian law, of course. The fact is that recently the economic and financial situation of this factory has worsened, the profit has decreased significantly, and the owner who knows how to count money has not wanting to work without profit. The fact that the owner Mr. Poroshenko announced the closure is due only to the economic situation in the factory. This is his right as the owner. ”

The Governor of the Lipetsk region Oleg Korolev believes that if Poroshenko had fulfilled his promises, given at the time of the President of Ukraine, and sold the factory, then investors would have been quickly found, and the problem would be exhausted.

Oleg Kazakov, General Director of the Roshen plant, refused to comment, citing the fact that he himself is now in Kyiv: “I was forbidden to communicate with the press. Want to talk, come to Kyiv. What to comment on you, they still understand everything why and what! We were taken out with tax audits, the Investigative Committee, interrogations! ” It also failed to contact Oleg Leonidovich in Kyiv: he no longer answered the calls of the correspondent of Novaya Gazeta.

In addition to the employees of Roshen, everything in the city is clear. A gloomy saleswoman in a stall with confectionery products near the factory replies to me: “Well, what will happen ... there will be no work, there will be no“ Roshenovsky ”sweets.” The sweets, by the way, were delicious.

Lipetsk - Moscow