Remote Working to Continue Temporarily

After an extensive consultation, Rusneftegaz can announce that we have elected to postpone any formal requirement for our staff to return to solely office-based working on a temporary basis. Whilst a significant proportion of administrative employees have heretofore returned to their posts either partially or in full, in many instances this has not been possible for a variety of justifiable reasons. As many will be aware, it was originally intended that our administrative and office-based workers would fully return to their respective workplaces during the summer of this year. However, management regularly audits our coronavirus mitigation strategy every three weeks, and has previously opted to delay a complete end to home working twice at reviews in both June and July. As a result, there is now consensus amongst our board that there are such low prospects of the majority of our staff returning to any kind of office-based work before respiratory virus rates surge with the advent of autumn, that it is no longer necessary to analyze the prospects of an end to home working at regular intervals. Instead, our management shall determine when the conditions are pertinent for a return to the policies set forth prior to March 2020, and at such a time a return to regular workstations shall be compulsory and non-negotiable. In response to this news, our Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aleksandr Filyurin, gave these remarks in response:

“It is obviously very disappointing that we cannot end remote working at this time, but we understand the reasons why, and know that we have to compromise during these challenging times. The remote working arrangement has not been good for Rusneftegaz, we have suffered in terms of productivity, and in terms of collaboration and effectiveness. I think it is important to state that we have no intention of retaining this policy in any capacity when the pandemic ends. Put simply, it has not worked for us in the way that we hoped. The only positive for us is that it has ensured that our staff have been able to do enough to keep this company functioning during this time, but there are a lot of things have been delayed or neglected entirely. A lot of these problems are not our fault, other companies have been working at a reduced capacity too, and that has affected our plans. But at board level, we are working to rectify this once the pandemic is over, and hope that we will be in a position to complete all these plans when the time is right.”

We can also disclose that we do not intend to introduce or enforce any type of vaccination mandate upon our staff unless obliged to do so by law, although in the instance that aforementioned legislation were to take effect in any of the jurisdictions our organization operates in, it would compel any unvaccinated workers to perform their roles remotely where possible. Any instances where this would not be possible shall be managed on a case-by-case basis at the appropriate time. For all those who do not operate in an office-based role, which includes the majority of our employees, we can confirm that all existing protocols and containment measure are to remain, and will continue to be reviewed and updated every three weeks as per usual. This includes the ongoing and compulsory FFP3, N99 and or 12.4.191-2011 mask mandate when inside company buildings and structures, with Rusneftegaz continuing to provide these aforementioned coverings to all our workers at no cost for the foreseeable future. Such stringent regulations have resulted in our organization successfully containing the pandemic, with only a nominal number of cases affiliated with close contact in a work environment on sites controlled by our company. Any questions by staff in relation to this statement should be submitted to their manager in due course. Similarly, all general queries pertaining to the matter discussed in this bulletin should be directed via the usual channel, such as telephone and email. We necessitate your cooperation and understanding with such affairs at this concerning time.