Tatsiana Luhina, chief executive of Kamvol and former head of Bellegprom, said on STV that Belarusians do not work intensively enough. According to her, this reduces the enterprise’s competitiveness.
According to Luhina, in February this year she asked a partner from India to provide several spinners for one or two years, but he declined, explaining that the working day in Belarus lasts eight hours.
“I asked whether he could give me several spinners for a year or two; in their country, men do this work. I want to see their competencies, qualifications and work speed. Maybe they are faster and more agile. It would be useful for our women to observe them as well. Perhaps there are differences in equipment setup. In other words, experience.
He told me that he would gladly do so, but could not, because you work eight hours a day while we work 12. Everyone in your country works slowly, and I do not want my people to slow down their pace,” Luhina said.
She said this made her “reflect on the realities of life.”
“We talk about competition. We often tell not only ourselves but also external stakeholders, the Economy Ministry, the Council of Ministers and the president, that we cannot keep costs down and that everything is expensive for us. But it is expensive for many reasons, starting with basic approaches and work intensity.
When we come to work, we first drink tea and tell our neighbour how we fermented cabbage. At work, however, we should be working for at least eight hours. I always tell everyone that sometimes we work long hours not because managers force us to stay late or come in on Saturday, but because we do not always fully work even those eight hours. Intensively, diligently, attentively and with focus. That is why we have Ethiopians who, by our standards, perform this work for an acceptable level of pay and feel excellent about it. At first, they kept saying: ‘Give us more work, give us more work.’
People from those countries work very hard. We live in a socially oriented state, and not everyone fully understands how fortunate we are to be working eight hours, or sometimes even fewer, while knowing that all labour conditions must be guaranteed for us. Therefore, the fact that we live in a happy society that is completely protected in terms of safety, working conditions and pay is a fact,” she concluded.
According to Luhina, Kamvol currently employs 71 foreign workers, including 10 citizens of Ethiopia and 52 citizens of Turkmenistan.
