Wednesday 3 September 2014
Rescue plan for Kompania Weglowa
Poland has long tradition of coal
mining, thanks to the large layers of coal on the south-west of the country
(especially in the region of Silesia). After necessary restructuring in the
sector, Kompania Weglowa has been founded. At the moment, it is the biggest
coal mining company in Europe, employing 55 thousand people and extracting approx.
40 mln tons of coal annually. The company has been facing financial
difficulties, therefore there have been taken steps towards drafting reasonable
recovery plan for the firm.
Kompania Weglowa was founded in 2003 in place of the deaths of five Mining Companies: Rybnik, Bytom, Nadwislanska, Rudzka and Gliwice. The headquarters are located in Katowice,the heart of Silesia, region widely known for the coal mining tradition. Company currently hires in total around 55 thousand people.
From 2012
the amount of extracted coal was decreasing, but year 2014 brought significantly
worse financial situation.
The mines dumps are
stocked with more than 5 million tons of coal. Despite having the stock full,
the company cannot sell them. As
the CEO Miroslaw Taras points out in the interview with Gfazeta Wyborcza: “At the moment, at least five mines are currently full.
(…) In addition, sales
of coal from the piles is not possible, because of debts which
are covered by the pledge”.
 |
| Headquarters of Kompania Weglowa in Katowice |
In order to find a way out of this
difficult situation, extensive discussion are taking place from June 2014. Miroslaw Taras has already presented the outline
of the rescue plan for the company. He
strongly highlighted that there is no deceleration miners and mine closings. Instead, weaker mines (in terms of production)
will limit extraction and the people and
equipment so far involved in those mines will be transferred to plants with the best performance.
The only
problem, except agreement of all the parties upon changes to be implemented:
the board of directors as well as employees, might be the cost of restructuring. It is
still not clear who is supposed to bear the costs – Kompania Weglowa expects
help from the government, while the government is expecting KW to self-finance
such changes. The problem was pointed out by Taras in the, already mentioned,
interview with Gazeta Wyborcza.
At the
beginning of September, Polish Radio reported that public consultation has been
opened for the rescue plan for 2014-2020. As stated before, the company wants
to maximally preserve the employees and avoid firing people as much as
possible. What might be beneficial is the sale of several mines -
and the implementation of restructuring programs for individual
companies. The Board of Directors also wants to rationalize employment and "make real" cost of wages and non-wage
benefits. They have to be adapted
to the market situation and the possibility of economic situation of
Kompania Weglowa. The Company intends to increase
sales revenue by improving the quality
and average prices of coal. The plan also envisages changes in the organizational structure
of the company and its group.
The
labour unions do not support the current plans for restructuring. In the same
time, it seems to be pretty reasonable plan for saving the company, without firing
people. Kompania Weglowa seems to understand the difficulty of the market (and
very high possibility that the fired miners won’t be able to find job anywhere
else) and be responsible towards their employees. In the same time, the company
has to be driven towards generating profit – if they don’t want to fire anyone,
the employees have to be aware of lowering the wages.
As soon
as new information arise, it will be reported on this blog.
Based on:
http://wyborcza.pl/1,75248,16145207,Sytuacja_w_Kompanii_Weglowej_coraz_bardziej_dramatyczna_.htmlhttp://www.kwsa.pl/
Picture:
http://g0.gazetaprawna.pl/p/_wspolne/pliki/988000/988681-wegiel-gornik-kopalnia-657-323.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/POL_Katowice_-_Building_of_Kompania_W%C4%99glowa_on_Powsta%C5%84c%C3%B3w_Street.jpg
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