OREANDA-NEWS.  September 07, 2012. ArcelorMittal Liberia and the United Workers’ Union of Liberia (UWUL-Local #4, ArcelorMittal Workers) signed the company’s first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), aimed at establishing a formal structure for regulating all aspects of the company and its employees’ relationship, reported the press-centre of ArcelorMittal. 

Highlights of this agreement include:

Salary increase to be backdated from April 1, 2012.

Enhanced employee benefits, such as an increase in maternity, paternity and annual leaves.

Variable bonus to be introduced in January 2013, based on performance including safety.

The establishment of a joint health and safety committee.

The establishment of a joint ArcelorMittal Liberia management and union committee.

Peace obligation binding the management and union to follow requisite procedures to ensure all disputes are resolved internally, at the lowest levels.

“We were functioning with an interim agreement that did not meet the requirements for providing all the necessary structures, policies and procedures to assist in managing the relationship,” said Lourens Duplessis, Arcelormittal Liberia’s head of human resources. “The Collective Bargaining Agreement assists greatly in providing the mechanisms conducive to a positive working relationship,” he added.

ArcelorMittal Liberia’s chief executive officer, Rajesh Goel, signing on behalf of the company, said: “we are very pleased that management and workers have negotiated this agreement after intense negotiations. Arriving at this stage of signing of the CBA took nine long months; however, it is commendable that both sides displayed exemplary patience, maturity, perseverance, mutual respect and understanding to continue the discussion, maintaining an environment of cordiality and camaraderie. My heartiest congratulations and thanks to the workers, management representatives, national general secretary of UWUL and the Labour Ministry. Both sides are now ready to work together to achieve good operating results for the company.”

The negotiations between ArcelorMittal’s management and the Worker’s Union executives, launched in November 2011, were held in Monrovia, Yekepa, and Buchanan, with an agreement finally reached on August 11, 2012. “Groundbreaking” is how Chea Romeo Brookes, head of ArcelorMittal Liberia’s Workers’ Union, described the agreement. “It is a fair deal and should be used as a hallmark for other companies that will be investing in our country,” he said. He singled out the ‘progression of wages’ as the best part of the deal but emphasized that it must be enforced by the management, employees and the Government of Liberia.

ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel and mining company, which has a presence in 60 countries, has a CBA or Collective Labor Agreement (CLA) in most of the countries in which it has operations. This CBA will be in effect for two years, with certain elements including salaries, due for review at the end of each period.

For Liberia, this is the second major CBA signing by an investor, and many see such agreements as major contributors to the general economic growth and wellbeing of the country.

“You are a model for negotiation in the workplace,” said the chairman of the National Investment Commission, Natty B. Davis, speaking at the signing. “You are a shining example to all,” he added. “It takes responsible management and employees to achieve this objective,” he said.