As of March 31, 2010, the voestalpine Group had 39,406 employees (excluding apprentices and temporary personnel). Compared to the end of the business year 2008/09, this corresponds to a reduction due to the economic crisis of 6.0% or 2,509 employees. In comparison to the employee numbers prior to the crisis (September 30, 2008), this represents a decline by 3,627 employees or 8.4%.
The proportion of Austrian to “international” employees has remained constant: The majority (20,788 employees or 53%) was working at locations outside of Austria, while 18,618 employees were working in Austrian companies.
Furthermore, as of the end of the business year 2009/10, the voestalpine Group was training 1,472 apprentices. At 32.0%, already nearly a third (471 apprentices) are being trained at international sites compared to 68.0% (1,001 apprentices) in Austria. The number of Group-wide apprentices has thus remained almost constant—at a very high level—as compared to the previous year (1,506), declining by a mere 2.3% or 34 apprentices.
Human resources management in the business year 2009/10
The dimension of the global economic crisis and the speed with which it escalated have posed great challenges to human resources management during the last two business years. By not only quickly recognizing and assessing the crisis, but also by consistently and comprehensively implementing numerous human resources strategies, the voestalpine Group was able to navigate this most difficult economic period since the post-war years in such a way that the effects on the Company’s employees have remained comparatively manageable. At the same time, this experience has taught some lessons regarding human resources management so that the Group overall and the HR sector in particular can become more flexible, leaner, and more efficient in their reaction to the increasing volatility of the markets. In addition to continuing to develop new working time models, this includes a greater utilization of temporary workers.
The crisis response in the voestalpine Group consisted of a number of short- and medium-term measures that depended on the requirements of the individual company and the legal and country-specific parameters. These included reduced working hours, consumption of remaining vacation days and compensatory time credit, introduction of new working time models, development of social plans for employees willing to voluntarily give up their jobs and employees who were close to retirement age, as well as more opportunities for educational leave.
Although these measures proved to be effective overall and prevented broadly based layoffs, nevertheless the staff had to be reduced in the business year 2009/10 by a total of 2,509 core employees (641 salaried employees and 1,868 workers), of whom 46% were in Austria. At the height of implementation of reduced working hours in June 2009, almost one third of the staff was affected; since the fall of 2009, the employment situation has eased to the extent that it was possible to cut back the number of employees still working reduced hours by the end of the business year 2009/10 to only 1,460 employees (this corresponds to 3.7% of the Company’s workforce).
The number of temporary employee s rose compared to the previous year by 26.8% (from 2,327 to 2,951 person-years), however, it is still 1,198 person-years under the highest figure at the beginning of the crisis in the fall of 2008.
Stahlstiftung (Austria)
The Stahlstiftung (“steel foundation”), which was founded in 1987, provides employees who are leaving the Company with the opportunity to complete training or continuing education programs for a period of up to four years, acquiring new occupational skills or improving qualifications, for example, final apprenticeship examinations, classes and courses of study, studies at vocational secondary schools, universities of applied sciences, or universities. In addition to cushioning the social impact of layoffs due to the economic environment, this organization also helps those affected to look for new jobs.
The Stahlstiftung can be utilized by employees of almost all Group companies located in Austria (who currently make up two thirds of the participants), as well as employees from about 70 external member companies from outside the Group; it is funded by solidarity contributions by the employees of the member companies. Since its establishment, this organization has achieved an average placement rate of 93%. Even in the extremely tough, crisis-stricken job market of the past business year, the Stahlstiftung has been able to successfully integrate 85% of the job seekers into the job market.
As of March 31, 2010, 884 persons were being assisted by this organization; due to the crisis, the number had doubled from the previous year.
Educational leave (Austria)
As of the end of the business year 2009/10, 611 employees of Austrian Group companies (this corresponds to a five-fold increase compared to the previous year) had taken advantage of educational leave opportunities. This model enables employees to participate in government-subsidized training and continuing education for a period of three to twelve months and is largely funded by the Stahlstiftung. After the end of the leave, employees are guaranteed a job with their employer. The participants of the educational leave model are predominantly internal voestalpine employees (94%), with most of them coming from the Steel and the Special Steel Divisions.
Employee shareholding scheme
The expansion of the employee shareholding scheme of voestalpine AG beyond the Austrian borders is being consistently implemented. The international employee shareholding model, which was developed in the previous year, was successfully implemented during the business year 2009/10 in individual British and German Group companies. The inclusion of additional companies is being planned for the current business year 2010/11.
As of March 31, 2010, 20,578 active Group employees hold about 20.9 million voestalpine AG shares within the scope of the employee shareholding scheme. These shares, as well as another 1.5 million private shares held by both former and active employees, are being managed by the voestalpine Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Privatstiftung.
As of the end of the business year 2009/10, a total of 13.3% of the voestalpine AG shares were held by employees.
