On April 30, 2021, a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan was held under the leadership of the Chairman of the FPRK Satybalda Dauletalin.
Opening the meeting, the head of the FPRK focused on the current issues of the Federation of Trade Unions, submitted to the Executive Committee for consideration.
Within the framework of the agenda, the issues of prevention and resolution of labor conflicts, safety and labor protection were considered.
The state of labor relations and the measures taken to prevent and resolve labor conflicts in their regions were reported by the chairman of the Trade Center of the Atyrau region Isturgan Baymukhanov, the deputy chairman of the TOP of the Aktobe region Zhenisbek Akbergenov, the chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Employees of Medium and Small Businesses “Yntymak” Kairakbay Zhanabekov and the chairman of the Branch Oil and Gas Trade Union Elena Mustafina.
According to Isturgan Baymukhanov, the regional trilateral agreement between the regional akimat, trade unions and employers for 2021-2023 was signed on April 9.
Prior to this, on February 22, by the order of the akim of the region, a “Working group on preventing the risks of labor conflicts and social conflicts in the Atyrau region” was established with the participation of trade union representatives.
Since the beginning of the year, labor disputes in Atyrau region have been registered in 15 labor collectives.
“Appropriate measures were taken for all violations of labor rights, inspections were carried out, meetings were held with the heads of enterprises and labor collectives, all labor disputes in 11 institutions were resolved in favor of employees,” Isturgan Baymukhanov said.
In the Aktobe region, Zhenisbek Akbergenov said, thanks to the joint efforts of trade unions and social partners, strikes and probably major labor conflicts were prevented.
According to him, the main focus in the work of the Trade Union Center is on solving problems related to the timely payment of wages.
“The main risk of labor and other conflicts is assumed to be in the oil and gas industry. Aktobe region ranks last in terms of oil and gas sector wages. Thus, the structure of the oil and gas sector is dominated by enterprises with the participation of Chinese investors, where the average salary does not exceed 180 thousand tenge,” Zhenisbek Akbergenov stressed.
In order to avoid possible outbreaks in the Aktobe region, a working group was created to monitor the situation at enterprises, which included trade unions, deputies of maslikhats, members of the public council of the region, the labor inspectorate, and the akimat of the region.
Some problems of raising wages and improving working conditions were resolved with the participation of mediators of “Tatulasu ortalygy” at the Trade Union Center of the Aktobe region.
Kairakbay Zhanabekov, chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Workers of Medium and Small Businesses “YNTYMAQ”, spoke about measures to protect the rights of trade union members using specific examples.
According to him, through the joint efforts of all participants of the social partnership, it was possible to resolve collective disputes at the fields of M-Techservice LLP, Kezbi LLP, ANSK LLP, Trubremcenter LLP.
“In preventing collective individual labor disputes, the YNTYMAQ Branch Trade Union faced such problems as low wages, an imbalance in wages, the lack of surcharges for processing and working in harmful and difficult working conditions, and other violations of labor legislation,” Zhanabekov said.
In general, according to him, more than 120 employees of oilfield service companies were restored to their jobs.
The topic of remuneration of employees of the oil and gas sector was continued by the chairman of the Kazakhstan Oil and Gas Industry Trade Union Elena Mustafina.
“Today, the” ground ” for conflicts is the lack of uniform approaches to remuneration, when working in the same professions, people receive different wages for their work. Taking into account that today the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan does not oblige employers to apply a single Provision on remuneration for the industry, the public organization “Kazakhneftegazprofsoyuz” addressed the relevant proposals to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan. We thank the FPRC for supporting our position. We believe that the maximum allowable difference in the level of average wages in industrial sectors should be established by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the approaches to the formation of wage systems should be uniform, ” Elena Mustafina said.
According to her, today “Kazakhneftegazprofsoyuz” is working on the creation of new trade union organizations at these enterprises.
Summing up the speeches of the speakers, the Chairman of the FPRC Satybaldy Dauletalin said that as a result of the monitoring of the FPRC since the beginning of this year, 30 labor conflicts have been recorded in the republic, most of which occur at enterprises where there are no trade unions.
“Of the 30 enterprises where labor conflicts occurred, only 13 had trade union organizations of the FPRK. The participation of trade unions has led to more meaningful negotiations, a reduction in the duration of conflicts and an early agreement, ” the Head of the FPRK said.
Among other reasons, he drew attention to the refusal of the administration of enterprises to conduct constructive negotiations with employees.
“The employers’ association did not take part in any of the past conflicts. They are still at the stage of non-unification and disorganization.
In addition, the analysis of labor conflicts shows that employees practically do not pay attention to the existing procedure for making demands of the legislation of the republic. Basically, all the labor protests occurred spontaneously. This suggests that the current legislation is poorly developed today and is practically not suitable for resolving collective labor disputes. At a meeting of the Government and the Commission on Human Rights, we raised these issues. There is no need to be afraid of labor conflicts, you need to negotiate and resolve problems through a collective agreement and establish communication with employees, ” says Satybaldy Dauletalin.
In this regard, the Chairman of the FPRC instructed:
– continue working on raising the minimum wage, legislating wage indexation, and ratifying ILO Convention No. 131 ” On the Establishment of a Minimum Wage with Special Consideration for Developing Countries»;
– continue work on simplifying the procedures for making claims and resolving labor disputes( conflicts), toughening the responsibility of the employer for exerting any form of pressure on employees in connection with their actions aimed at individual or collective protection of their rights and interests, as well as punishing employers for delay and non-payment of wages;
– to seek a solution to the issue related to the lifting of the moratorium on inspections of small and medium-sized businesses on issues related to labor relations.
The issues of occupational safety and health were widely discussed during the meeting.
The chairman of the TOP of Karaganda region Bolat Zhumabekov, the chairman of the TOP of East Kazakhstan region Temirbek Kasymzhanov, the chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Agricultural Workers Yegor Kappel and the deputy chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Railway, Automobile, Air and Water Transport Workers Zhuparbek Sabitov told about the solution of these issues in the regions
According to Bolat Zhumabekov, in 2020, 213 accidents were registered in the Karaganda region, including 35 with a fatal outcome. For 3 months of 2021, 65 people were injured in accidents at the enterprises of the region, which is 11% lower compared to the same period in 2020.
In enterprises and organizations where there are trade union organizations of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 50 cases or 23 percent of the total number, with a fatal outcome of 7 cases, which is 24 percent. Of these, 4 cases – JSC “ArcelorMittal Temirtau”, 2-JSC “Shubarkol Komir”, 1-JSC “National Company” Kazakhstan Temir Zholy”.
“In the organizations and enterprises of the Karaganda region, there are 1128 production councils, 1128 public labor protection inspectors of the trade union are elected and work in them. A responsible approach to occupational safety and health issues on the part of trade unions and administrations has made it possible to reduce the level of injuries since the beginning of 2021,” Bolat Zhumabekov said.
The chairman of the Trade Union Center of the East Kazakhstan region, Temirbek Kasymzhanov, in turn, said that 195 accidents occurred at the enterprises of the region, as a result of which 209 employees were injured, including 23 dead.
“On March 12, 2021, the Coordinating Council of the Trade Union Center adopted the “Road Map for the prevention of injuries in the production of East Kazakhstan Region”. With the direct initiative of the trade unions of the region, 28 enterprises joined the concept of zero injuries “Vision Zero”, including all large organizations where there are trade unions. At 2 enterprises of the Kazzinc Corporation, the project “People’s Control” has been implemented, where 10 people are transferred for health reasons to work on monitoring the safe conduct of work, and training staff in safe working methods, “Temirbek Kasymzhanov said.
The chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Agricultural Workers, Yegor Kappel, reported on the problems of ensuring labor safety in the agricultural sector. “The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan today does not have a labor protection service, similarly, in regional departments. There are no industry standard instructions on labor protection. In educational institutions, there is a low number of hours of training on labor protection issues, ” said Yegor Kappel.
Deputy Chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Railway, Automobile, Air and Water Transport Workers Zhuparbek Sabitov said that the number of deaths in railway and road transport organizations was 15 people or 7% of the total number of employees.