As part of the campaign “How do you live, primary?”, Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan Gulnara Zhumageldieva met with members of the trade union of Batys Su Arnasy LLP.
The online meeting was attended by Chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Builders and Housing and Communal Services Kusein Esengazin, Chairman of the Trade Union Center of the West Kazakhstan region Aigul Esekenova, Deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Malik Kulshar, Chairman of the trade Union committee of Batys Su Arnasy LLP Azilia Ilekbaeva.
At the meeting, Aigul Esekenova described the social and labor conditions in the company as one of the best examples of successful social partnership in the region.
Batys Su Arnasy LLP is the only supplier of centralized water supply in the city of Uralsk, which is included in the regional register of monopolistic enterprises providing water supply and sanitation services.
The trade union at the enterprise has been operating since 1962, since the creation of the vodokanal itself. Over the years, due to the reorganization and renaming of the enterprise, the name of the primary trade union organization has also been changed. Established on December 15, 2017, the Local Trade Union of Su Arnasy in Uralsk is part of the Branch Trade Union of Construction and Housing and Communal Services Workers.
To date, the company employs 843 people, 818 of whom are members of the trade union, which is 97% of the full-time staff of the company.
According to Azilya Ilekbaeva, the work of the trade union organization “Batys Su Arnasy” LLP is carried out on the basis of a successful social partnership with the employer. The company has a collective agreement for the period from 2019 to March 31, 2020, which was extended due to the adoption of new tariffs.
In accordance with the terms of the collective agreement, employees are provided with a number of social benefits and guarantees.
The company pays special attention to occupational health and safety. In the first months of 2021, 656 people received professional training.
The participants of the meeting paid special attention to the discussion of the most pressing issues of the company’s employees. Among them-low wages, strengthening the status and working conditions of technical inspectors for labor protection, as well as strengthening the powers and responsibilities of state labor inspectors by transferring the State Labor Inspectorate to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population.
According to the representative of the employer Adilbek Kadyrov, the company’s management plans to increase the wages of employees. At the same time, the level of wages depends on the tariffs for water supply and sanitation services. In this regard, a proposal to increase tariffs was sent to the Committee on Regulation of Natural Monopolies of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In turn, Kusein Esengazin stressed that the Sectoral Agreement on socio-economic issues was signed by the social partners in February of this year. However, the issues of wages were not properly resolved. The Chairman of the Branch Trade Union assured that this issue will be reviewed during the meeting of the trilateral commission on social partnership.
Kusein Yesengazin expressed gratitude to the employees of the enterprise for their hard work, noting the important contribution of representatives of public utilities in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament Malik Kulshar noted the importance of holding the trade union action “How do you live, primary?” and expressed readiness to cooperate with the Federation of Trade Unions in solving the problematic issues of industry workers.
Summing up the meeting, Deputy Chairman of the FPRK Gulnara Zhumageldieva highly appreciated the work of the trade union organization “Batys Su Arnasy” LLP.
“The primary trade union organization is the foundation of the trade union movement. Today we saw how the social partnership system works in practice. Both the trade union and the employer take part in this,” Gulnara Zhumageldieva said.
In addition, she noted that the issue of financial incentives for technical inspectors was first addressed in the recently adopted General Agreement.
Gulnara Zhumageldieva said that the FPRK is working on legislative strengthening of the legal status of technical inspectors.
“With regard to strengthening the powers and responsibilities of State labour inspectors, according to ILO Convention No. 181, the State Labour Inspectorate should be part of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. The FPRC sent this proposal to the Government. In general, today the activities of the FPRK are aimed at strengthening social and labor relations, promoting the ideology of the trade union movement. In this regard, new projects are being launched. Soon, other projects will be added to them. Therefore, I urge all of you to take an active part in these projects,” Gulnara Zhumageldieva added.
Media Center of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan