“HOW DO YOU LIVE, PRIMARY?”: THE HEAD OF THE FPRK MET WITH THE LABOR COLLECTIVES OF THE CAPITAL’S LIBRARIES

As part of the action of the FPRK “How do you live, primary?”, the Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions Satybaldy Dauletalin conducted an online visit to the primary trade union organization of the KSU “Centralized Library System”of the akimat of Nur-Sultan.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman of the FPRK Nurlan Uteshev, Chairman of the Trade Center of Nur-Sultan Tolegen Kunadilov, deputies of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva and Yulia Kuchinskaya, chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Workers of Culture, Sports, Tourism and Information Svetlana Imankulova, head of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the State Institution “Department of Culture of Nur-Sultan” Askar Kalybayev, Director of the KSU “Centralized Library System” of the Akimat of Nur-Sultan” Gulbadan Madibayeva, Deputy Chairman of the branch, Moscow Nur-Sultan of the Branch Trade Union of Workers of Culture, Sports, Tourism and Information Alibek Sattarov, chairman of the primary trade union organization of the KSU “Centralized Library System” Shynar Ustenbekova, as well as representatives of 18 metropolitan libraries.

The centralized library system was established in 1974. Today, the library has a staff of 126 people, all of whom are members of the trade union.

Director of KSU CBS Gulbadan Madibayeva focused on the achievements of the library system, noting that in recent years all the libraries of KSU CBS are actively developing, continue to change the format of work and become full-fledged multifunctional cultural centers and centers of knowledge.

“18 libraries provide library and information services to the population of Nur-Sultan. CBS libraries provide free, free and equal access to information in all types, to all categories of users, ” Gulbadan Madibayeva said.

She made a special emphasis on the issues of support from the Branch Trade Union.

“We felt active support from the Branch Trade Union of Workers of Culture, Sports, Tourism and Information headed by Svetlana Imankulova during a difficult period for us, when the question arose about the reorganization of the KSU CBS by transferring it to the City Archive. Social tension and a wave of indignation were caused by the words of the deputy M. Shekenov about the closure of all city libraries. For several days, social networks have been actively discussing this issue, with more than 90% of netizens in favor of preserving the libraries. At that moment, the Branch Trade Union sent letters to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Prime Minister and all city executive bodies. The effect of the exploding bomb worked. We were heard, and the President of the country himself drew attention to us. At the meeting of the Public Council of National Trust on October 22, 2020, the Head of State stressed the important role of libraries in the spiritual development of humanity,” Gulbadan Madibayeva said.

The role of the trade union in creating decent working conditions was noted by the chairman of the primary trade union organization Shynar Ustenbekova.

According to her, within the framework of the current collective agreement, full-time employees are provided with the opportunity to receive full-fledged paid labor leave, health compensation in the amount of salary and 10% of payment at the expense of the trade union for spa treatment.

“Every year, employees of the KSU CBS together with the trade union committee of the library provide targeted, social assistance to large, low-income families in the form of cash, food, clothing, toys, books, etc.In 2020, the library staff transferred funds in the amount of 240,000 thousand tenge to citizens affected by flooding in the Makhtaralsky district. Within the framework of the Republican campaign “30 Good Deeds”, financial assistance was provided to employees of the library’s technical staff from among socially vulnerable groups, ” Shynar Ustenbekova said.

During the meeting, the chairman of the trade union committee touched upon the problematic issues of library employees. First of all, she noted that the remuneration of librarians is the lowest among cultural workers.

“The salary of librarians is from 70 to 110,000 tenge with all allowances. The salary of technical personnel is 48 thousand tenge.   Due to low wages, there are almost no young personnel, although educational institutions annually train specialists in “Library Science”, – said Shynar Ustenbekova.

No less urgent problem is the housing issue.

“Library employees cannot participate in housing programs due to low salaries, while there are employees from socially vulnerable segments of the population,” the chairman of the primary school said.

Along with this, the problem of major repairs and modernization of libraries was noted.

“There are 18 libraries in KSU “Centralized Library System”, of which 4 libraries are located in rented buildings, the rest are located in adapted rooms, in the buildings of dormitories, ” Shynar Ustenbekova said.

Svetlana Imankulova, the chairman of the Branch Trade Union of Workers of Culture, Sports, Tourism and Information, spoke about measures to support workers within the framework of social partnership.

“The branch trade Union repeatedly raised the voiced questions at the meeting of the Branch Commission, the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture and Sports, before the Department of Culture of the Akimat of Nur-Sultan. In April 2021, by the decision of the Branch Council, on the basis of appeals from member organizations, requests were made to the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Labor and Social Protection of the Population, Health, Finance, and National Economy, which announced an initiative to suspend the process of optimizing and reorganizing cultural and sports institutions, including libraries, ” Svetlana Imankulova said

Despite this, according to her, the local executive bodies continue to work on optimizing the number of employees in the field of culture and sports.

In addition, the Branch Trade Union raises issues of providing additional payments and allowances for calculating official salaries of employees on the basis of the basic official salary, which is 17,697 tenge and has remained unchanged for 11 years.

Svetlana Imankulova also spoke about the initiative of the trade union to address the issue of legislative consolidation of health benefits for unskilled workers once a calendar year when providing paid annual leave.

“Our proposal to the social partners and today’s participants of the meeting is to raise the issues of employees of the same field of libraries not in the context of a separate industry, as we say for librarians in the field of education, but in a comprehensive way, as was done on the example of medical workers in all industries,” said the chairman of the Branch Trade Union.

After hearing the participants of the meeting, Deputy of the Mazhilis of the Parliament Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva noted the relevance of the problems voiced.

“There are many decisions regarding the increase in wages, starting from a complete revision of the options for calculating wages.  This issue is on the agenda for cultural workers. The authorized agencies are engaged in the development of common approaches to the indexation of wages. From 2022, the state budget will reflect the issue of allocating additional financial resources, ” the deputy stressed.

Speaking about the optimization of the staff size, she expressed her readiness to assist in solving problems by reflecting them in the deputy’s request.

“Now it is very important to save the staff of the library sector,” says Ekaterina Smyshlyaeva.

With regard to the housing issue, she said that a draft law on housing policy is currently being discussed at the Government level, which provides for a fundamental change in the model of housing provision, in terms of its accessibility for all categories of citizens.

“When the bill comes to the Parliament, I think we will consider its content in more detail,” the deputy said.

Summing up the meeting, Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions Satybaldy Dauletalin noted the importance of preserving and developing libraries in the light of the effective implementation of the state’s cultural policy.

“In those moments when you needed support, the trade unions were there for you. Trade unions today are a powerful public institution that defends the labor rights of employees. In our ideology, reflected in the Strategy of Trade unions, the central place is occupied by the Labor Man. The Federation of Trade Unions together with the Branch Trade Union within the framework of the social partnership will develop recommendations that will improve the working life of our employees,” the head of the FPRK assured.

He made a separate emphasis on the issues of increasing the wages of employees.

“The issue of wages is relevant today throughout the country and concerns all sectors and spheres of life. The position of the Federation of Trade Unions is that today the minimum wage does not correspond to the level of a decent life. The Concept of Decent Work establishes the concept of “decent wages”. The positions that we reflect in the FPRC’s Strategy clearly indicate the need for a consistent increase in the size of the minimum wage. The new General Agreement on the initiative of the Federation of Trade Unions also reflects the norms on resolving this issue, ” Satybaldy Dauletalin said.

 

The Chairman of the FPRC noted the need to develop a methodology for determining the minimum wage.