Prof. Solianyk Liudmyla
National Mining University,
Ukraine
From guaranteed state protection to social
responsibility of business in Ukraine
At present,
national economic system of Ukraine is fairly integrated into world economy,
however being an EU member-state is not an end in itself for Ukraine, rather it
is the achievement of European standards of living through realization of
social programs for the Ukrainian citizens.
As
foreign experience shows, market economy requires that enterprises should be effective
and competitive. A
lot of Ukrainian enterprises have been artificially bankrupted for the reasons
of ineffective taxation, investment and dividend policies. However, it should
be noted that until now a portion of Ukraine’s GDP is in shadow, and many
people working in repair and construction work, trade, transport and other
businesses do not declare their income and do not have social protection. All
the above establishes the absence of effective mechanism of guaranteeing social
responsibility of business and power in Ukraine.
Change for market relations and Ukrainian government
reformation created the situation when there locally exist two conflicting
forces: entrepreneurs and the rest of the population. These lack of balance is
especially manifested in economy branches that are actively transformed on the
institutional level, i.e. coal and metallurgical industries. That is why our study
of the mechanism of guaranteeing social responsibility of business at the
international level is conducted in context of evaluation the efficiency of
mining and metallurgical complex development strategy.
Present state of mining and
metallurgical complexes of Ukraine is characterized by lack in technology in
comparison with European and world countries, underdeveloped industrial
structure, imperfect structure of metal production. Generalized
international experience of metallurgical and mining industries indicates that
their effective operation is possible only on the basis of further structural,
institutional and innovative transformations with simultaneous dealing with
social and labour problems. Institutional transformations and privatization
have really improved the operating efficiency of enterprises in these
industries through the activation of investment and innovation processes.
Considerable financial resources were attracted mainly from private sources,
which enabled partial technical modernization, introduction of innovative fuel
extraction methods and metal production techniques, and work creation. However, these
processes were accompanied by the increase in social risks for their employees
in private sector. Reduction of personnel in mining and metallurgical complex
is a negative trend from the point of view of social protection guaranteed by
enterprise owners. The
programs of headcount optimization are realized in the majority of large mining
and metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine: corporation ICD, PJSC “Arselor Mittal
Kryvyi Rih”, PJSC “DTEK Pavlogradugol” and so on. Steady decline in
regular staff at coal mining and metallurgical enterprises both results from introduction of technical innovation, and
wide use of industrial outsourcing and outstaffing, when outsourcer company
attracts additional personnel of different categories. It
should be noted that under extremely low rate of job performance growth of
mining and metallurgical complex employees, their pay was growing at a much
higher rate, especially in mining industry (Fig. 9), which does not make a
financial basis for solving social programs, it also disagrees with the
sustainable development principles of enterprise economic development. Thus,
average annual growth rate of job performance in metallurgical branch from 2007
to 2013 was 101%, while the growth rate of pay was 106.9%, and in mining branch
the figures were 101% and 108%, respectively [1].
According
to the results of social survey, the main barriers to establishment and
development of social responsibility of business in Ukraine are as follows:
inadequacy of legislative as well as regulatory and legal framework to regulate
the possibilities of participation of business in social programs, and
participation of educational institutions in the formation of social
responsibility of specialists; absence of fully-formed and effective
independent civil expertise and
estimation of results of social programs, standards and quality of training
business-specialists; lack of bonus system for responsible social subjects.
Thus,
there is a necessity to create own paradigm of social responsibility of business
based on the standards adopted in developed countries of the world to ensure
sufficient standard of living of Ukraine’s population and fairness of labour
product distribution, and guarantees in social sphere. That is why further
development of social responsibility of business needs urgent introduction of
ISO 26000 – Management of Social Responsibility, and ISO 9000 at enterprises of
mining and metallurgical complex, improvement of essence and procedure of
drawing collective agreements in the context of taking into account the
interests of employees and owners. It is of vital importance and urgency to
solve the problem of developing organization and economic mechanism of
assessing the level of social responsibility of business and forming its
motivation as for transferring to socially-oriented business.
The use of labour resources at mining and metallurgical enterprises is
ineffective, which is proved by the negative dynamics of job performance both
in mining and in metallurgy, which is conditioned by inadequate investment into
profound renovation and financing social development programs. The advanced
rate of average salary raise in comparison with the employees’ job performance
increase rate indicates the presence of social problems caused by growing conflict
and ineffective payment system, which fails to motivate employees as to high
job performance. It is necessary to conduct systemic scientific research
concerning the creation of effective mechanism of employees’ financial
motivation, and implementation of flexible forms and systems of remuneration to
resolve disproportion of labour compensation and to balance the interests of
employees and business owners.
References:
1. Pracja v Ukrai'ni zp 2007-2013rr. [Elektronnyj resurs] /
Rezhym dostupu: : URL: http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/ Zagolovok z ekranu.