[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

The period of collapse of Norilsk Nickel. A 25-year disaster. Now even the names of the dead are secret, 17 March 2021

...About four in the morning, 20th of February...At this time, workers from Norilsknickelremont, who were specially sent to this facility, are working at the Norilsk enrichment plant. Carrying out repairs to emergency structures of the enterprise...

In a few minutes, the pedestrian gallery will collapse, and behind it will form a transport gallery, an elevator shaft, and an ore transfer point building. Three dead will be found under the rubble, five will be sent to the hospital - rescuers will extract people from under the pile of metal. In a day the city will declare mourning. But he won’t name people. Norilsk Nickel will answer that it’s all because of the law on the protection of personal data...

At minus 40 in Norilsk, you feel as if you are breathing in thick fog, and it is very difficult. Pipes are everywhere: on the surface and underground. Everything around is smoking, visibility is zero because of this. Eyelashes turn white in a couple of minutes. And when it is quiet and there is no wind, the snowy haze makes the air look like darkness - a person is visible only when there are four meters left before him...

Alexander Golovnich worked at the factory for almost eight years. In his memory, workers were often forced to violate safety regulations. He left the plant and left Norilsk when he could no longer stand it mentally: “If you know that you can’t send people there because they will be killed, and you talk about it for two days, and then they send you on a day off and still put This person is killing him too - do you think there is an option not to leave?”

Golovnich’s stories about working at the factory are shocking: “Sometimes you climb down under the conveyor belt, and everything is spinning above you. Or you climb to clean a working crusher. There are many nuances that can kill you at any moment. And you will be forced to do this. Because it’s always been like this, if you say, they’ll fire you, they won’t let you work. And if they fire you, where will you find a job? You quit here, they simply won’t hire you anywhere else at the plant. It's a closed system...

We speak with current employees of the plant only on condition of anonymity. However, some people agree at first and then stop answering calls. Working for the plant, people are squeezed by obligations: providing for their families, paying for an apartment, loans. Norilsk Nickel is the leading employer in the city: “The work is stable, these guarantees are social,” says a current factory employee...

Workers claim they were still forced to go to the mines even after production was suspended. Some took sick leave. Those who came on shift had to sit in the quarters, where there was no light, only with headlamps, they had to guard the installed jumpers.

Regarding salaries for this period, the situation is as follows: at the Taimyr mine, workers were told that in the near future they would receive the minimum amount - about 50 thousand. Instead of their usual and so low salary for the north of 70-80 thousand. “Nobody goes on strike, because people have four loans, schools, a kindergarten,” says an employee of the Taimyr mine...

In addition to the order banning the publication of photos and videos from production, as the miners say, another document was issued - on amendments to the employment contract. On February 20, a meeting was held at the Taimyr mine, where the workers were told that they needed to sign an agreement, dated February 4, on changing “hazardous conditions at work.” Previously, workers had a third class of harmful working conditions (third degree) in their contract - it was changed to class 3, subclass 3.2. This cancels a number of benefits.

According to the workers, 84 days of vacation were replaced by 53, and therapeutic and preventive nutrition cards (TMP) were cancelled. “The mine pays money, and this money is used to buy milk,” says the wife of one of the workers. “Our child is small and drinks milk, so this is a good help for us.”...

All this happened at the plant before: accidents and deaths at work, when the tragedy was attributed to “it was his own fault - he did not follow safety precautions.” But three years ago, stable Internet appeared in Norilsk. People began to discuss what was happening on social networks, and after the accident at the thermal power plant last summer, all the bans and incidents at enterprises were perceived more painfully...

- We had a fatal accident a year ago, Anton Galkin, I knew him, he died - an electric locomotive driver, he flew into a wall on it, he worked at the mine for seven years...

“In fact, people are hostages: not everyone can correctly refuse dangerous work, they will still be driven to the sites, this is psychological pressure,” says Ruslan Abdullaev, lawyer and leader of the “My Home” organization...

We asked whether the plant's employees, in particular the factory and mine workers, were really prohibited from communicating with the press under threat of dismissal. And if so, what dictated such measures.

— In accordance with Norilsk Nickel’s internal rules, the right to communicate with media representatives on topics related to the company is delegated to the public relations department, as well as to managers within the scope of their official powers. <…> Working conditions for employees are regulated by labor legislation, as well as internal documents of the company. No additional requirements were introduced...