Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions Nurlan Uteshev held an online visit to the primary trade union organization GCP at the PCV “Higher Teachers’ College, the city of Shchuchinsk at the education department of Akmola region.
The Higher Teachers’ College of the city of Shchuchinsk is one of the oldest educational institutions in the country. The college has gone a glorious way – from the pedagogical school in 1930 to the modern educational institution, well equipped technically and has in its staff first-class teachers-specialists.
In its 90-year history, the college has produced more than 20,000 specialists.
The college’s union organization has been active since its inception. Anton Lazorsky, chairman of the trade union committee, spoke about the work of the primary trade union organization of the college.
“The institution has formed a wide range of social partners, with whom forms of effective cooperation are constantly being worked out. The college employs 152 people, all of them union members. The whole team is divided into: the administration – 6 people, 73 teachers and 73 specialists of administrative and economic staff. The organization has a collective agreement signed for the period from 2020 to 2023. The document contains a certain list of additional benefits and social support for employees. A lot of work has been done to preserve the majority of co-payments to wages including wellness payments,” Anton Lazorsky said.
According to him, from 2020 to 2021, more than 2.5 million tenge were allocated for cultural and mass events, for anniversaries and commemoration of veterans of pedagogical work, as well as for providing material assistance to employees who find themselves in a difficult life situation.
Between 2017 and 2021, 74 employees were sent to the sanatorium for rehabilitation, which amounted to 48.6%.
The work of the primary trade union organization is carried out in close cooperation with the employer in the person of the head of the Higher Teachers’ College of The City of Shchuchinsk Galina Bichun, who noted in her speech that within the framework of the social partnership the college management with the trade union is negotiating on the regulation of labor relations, ensuring guarantees of social and labor rights of workers, improving the local regulatory framework and other socially important issues.
At the same time, representatives of the other side of the collective bargaining agreement are jointly involved in the work of their governing bodies in dealing with the content and implementation of the collective bargaining agreement.
The employer together with the primary trade union organization provides comfortable working conditions, conditions for continuous improvement of professional pedagogical skills are created, and certificates, certificates and valuable prizes are awarded together with the regional trade union.
“The employer and the trade union agreed that decisions concerning wage issues, changes in the order and conditions of pay, pricing, premium, establishing compensation and incentive payments to employees are made jointly with the trade union; The certification of employees is carried out with the participation of the trade union committee representatives in the certification commission,” Galina Bichun said.
Teachers and staff are to be honoured to encourage and motivate the conscientious performance of their duties. When going on another paid leave, paid allowance for recovery, during the school year college staff have the opportunity to buy tickets to health sanatoriums with a partial reimbursement of the cost. In the conditions of distance learning, in order to ensure collaboration, discussion of topical issues, chat rooms, social networks, college website, webinars, video conferences, seminars are used.
Beisenbai Abdrakhmanov, chairman of the Nur Sultan branch and the Akmola region of the Educational and Science Workers’ Union, announced the situation in the region at the meeting. He stressed that a regional agreement on social partnership for 2021-2023 has been concluded between the Education Department and the Akmola Region Education Workers’ Union.
“Education organizations have created conditions for health and safety workers, annual medical examinations at the expense of the employer. Work is being done to protect the legal rights of trade union members: representation in the courts, cooperation with executive and law enforcement agencies. In connection with the adoption of the Law on the Status of Teachers, together with the Trade Union Center, some work was carried out to provide payment of utilities to teachers living in rural areas,” Beisenbay Abdrakhmanov said.
During the meeting, topical issues of the working staff of the Higher Teachers’ College were considered.
The workers proposed a number of amendments to the regulations on pay.
“By the decision of the Government of Kazakhstan on 31.12.2015. No. 1193 teachers of organizations of primary, basic secondary, general secondary education set a co-payment for a master’s degree in scientific and educational direction. But for teachers of TIPPO there is no such norm. In this regard, we propose to introduce a similar surcharge to the teachers of TIPPO,” Anton Lazorsky said.
The staff of the college also noted the need to review the salaries of technical staff and the amount of the basic salary.
Meanwhile, Aigul Mukasheva, chairman of the Education and Science Workers’ Union, stressed the urgency of all the issues raised at the meeting, noting that they are on the agenda of the Industry Union and the Federation of Trade Unions as a whole.
She noted that trade unions in the industry make an invaluable contribution to creating decent working conditions and protecting the professional interests of educators.
Aigul Mukasheva praised the work of the primary organization of the college and the constructive relationship between the employer and employees within the framework of the social partnership.
Mazhilis deputy Meirambek Tulepbergen stressed the trade union’s role in creating decent working conditions for every worker and increasing social well-being. He assured that all proposals and current issues from employees will not go unnoticed by parliamentarians.
Ekaterina Smylyaeva, a member of the Parliament’s Mazhilis, spoke about joint measures with the Federation of Trade Unions to improve the pay issues of public sector workers.
She expressed her willingness to assist in the social and labour issues of education workers.
Summing up the results of the meeting, Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions Nurlan Uteshev thanked the college staff and the trade union committee for their coordinated work and wished success in further strengthening the social guarantees of the employees of the institution.