CHAIRMAN OF THE FTURK: “THERE IS A LOT OF WORK TO BE DONE TO CREATE A REALLY WORKING SYSTEM OF SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP”

Today, on February 1, with the participation of the Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan Satybalda Dauletalin, an expanded meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Nur-Sultan Trade Union Center was held.

The members of the Coordinating Council discussed the key results of the Trade Union Center’s activities and identified tasks for the coming year.

According to the chairman of the Trade Union Center of Nursultan Tolegen Kunadilov, 530 primary trade union organizations protecting the interests of 105,355 trade union members carry out their activities at enterprises and organizations of the city.

According to him, last year 22 new primary trade union organizations were created in the capital, which included more than 1 thousand trade union members.

During 2021, 18 meetings of the city trilateral commission on social partnership and regulation of social and labor relations were held, at which topical problems of the social and labor sphere were considered, including issues of compliance with labor legislation by employers, repayment of wage arrears.

“As a result of the work done in 2021, the wage arrears in the amount of more than 268.5 million tenge to 2006 employees were repaid. As of January 20 this year, in the city of Nur-Sultan, wage arrears at bankrupt enterprises amount to 144.7 million tenge to 19 employees at 5 enterprises,” the chairman of the Trade Union Center said.

Last year, the Trade Union Center, together with social partners, conducted 249 unscheduled inspections to monitor compliance with labor legislation.

“132 orders were issued to eliminate violations on all facts, as well as 55 legal entities and officials were brought to administrative responsibility in the amount of 12.4 million tenge,” Tolegen Kunadilov said.

According to him, over the past two years, 107 accidents have occurred in the capital, as a result of which 29 people were killed and 78 were seriously injured.

The Chairman of the Trade Union Center noted that in 70 cases 100% fault of the employer was established.

“It should be noted that accidents occur mainly at enterprises that do not have trade unions. The causes of accidents were unsatisfactory organization of production activities and conditions of labor protection of employees, as well as the use of faulty equipment,” the speaker stressed.

According to the Professional Center, 789 production councils are currently operating in the capital, 842 technical inspectors monitor compliance with legislation in the field of safety and labor protection.

Tolegen Kunadilov called on the members of the Coordinating Council to step up activities to create production councils and strengthen the work of technical inspectors.

Speaking about measures to prevent labor conflicts, the Chairman of the Trade Union Center spoke about monitoring and risk analysis in labor collectives.

“In 2021, 7 strikes were registered in Nur-Sultan with demands for higher wages and better working conditions. Representatives of the city Trade Union Center together with social partners took part in all negotiation processes and in solving workers’ problems,” Tolegen Kunadilov said.

Many social and labor problems of the members of the trade union of the capital found their solution following the results of the action “How are you living, primary?”.

“For example, following the results of the action, the Trade Union Center of Nur-Sultan assisted two doctors of the City Polyclinic No. 9 in obtaining housing,” Kunadilov said.

Along with this, in the light of the protection of labor rights and interests of employees, 458 residents of the city received consultations and explanations in the public reception of the Trade Union Center. As noted, citizens’ appeals concerned issues of wages, improvement of working conditions, as well as illegal actions of the employer.

In addition, free legal assistance to trade union members is regularly provided on the basis of “Татуласу орталыгы” within the framework of the “Legal clinic” project.

Measures to promote trade union education were also noted.

About 10 thousand members of the trade union of the capital took part in the FTURK Educational Marathon and other training seminars.

During the meeting, accompanying reports and proposals were made by members of the Coordinating Council and chairmen of primary trade union organizations.

Chairman of the Astana branch of the Railway Workers’ Union Serik Sarsekeyev spoke about measures to promote workers’ rights and strengthen social partnership.

“A memorandum was signed between the branch trade union and the management of KTZ, within the framework of which an agreement was reached on coordinating a number of issues with the trade unions, including regulating wage issues and ensuring other labor guarantees,” Serik Sarsekeyev said.

Deputy Chairman of the city branch of the branch trade union of workers of culture, sports and information Alibek Sattarov, in turn, noted the need to strengthen social partnership.

“The year 2022 has been declared the “Year of Social Partnership” by the Federation of Trade Unions. It is necessary to develop cooperation that contributes to the prompt and effective solution of problems,” Alibek Sattarov believes.

The head of the center “Sacred Kazakhstan” Batyrkhan Zhumabayev focused the attention of the participants on the issues of salaries of museum workers.

“With a low salary of 60 thousand tenge, some categories of museum workers do not have the opportunity to participate in the housing program. We hope that the higher trade unions will unanimously support us and send relevant proposals to the government,” Batyrkhan Zhumabayev stressed.

Chairman of the city trade union of educational workers “Adilet” Batyr Aliyev noted the importance of improving the skills of trade union personnel and improving the labor literacy of young people.

“The Adilet trade Union has started work on conducting trade union lessons for high school students. The purpose of the lessons is to explain labor legislation and other social and labor issues. It is important for young people to know their rights and obligations, and also to be able to defend them, when entering working life,” Batyr Aliyev said.

The chairman of the branch of the branch trade union of workers of the construction complex and housing and communal services, Tleules Magyarova, made a proposal on the need to strengthen the control of social partners over the implementation of decisions taken by the city tripartite commission.

Chairman of the city branch of the branch trade union of employees of state, banking institutions and public services Atakozi Nurlanov touched upon the problematic issues of public sector workers.

He noted the need to eliminate gaps in legislation that discriminate against the rights of employees of social service centers and medical and social institutions.

After hearing the results of the work of the trade unions of the capital, the Chairman of the FTURK Satybaldy Dauletalin gave a positive assessment of their activities and called for unity in promoting the interests of the Labor Man.

Satybaldy Dauletalin elaborated on the initiatives of the Federation of Trade Unions announced at the last meeting of the Republican Trilateral Commission.

First of all, the Chairman of the FTURK noted the importance of resolving the issue of the wage system, the Federation proposed measures to determine and increase the minimum wage.

“In world practice, it is accepted that the minimum wage should be at the level of 50% of the average monthly salary, which in Kazakhstan is about 125 thousand tenge or 2 times more than the minimum wage established since the beginning of this year. Also, the so–called “minimum consumer budget” is used to determine the minimum wage in a number of countries,” said Satybaldy Dauletalin.

The head of the FTURK also reported on initiatives related to increasing the minimum wage, revising the methodology for calculating the food basket, indexing wages, revising the procedure for assigning temporary disability benefits, eliminating the wage gap, etc.

According to him, the issue of the legislative introduction of the procedure for approving acts of the employer with representatives of employees has been submitted for consideration by social partners.

One of the proposals of the FTURK concerns the legislative regulation of the norm on the conduct of mandatory labor consultations by the employer.

As stressed by Satybaldy Dauletalin, labor consultations will allow to openly resolve topical issues of labor relations in organizations.

The main condition for the successful implementation of the set goals, as emphasized by the Chairman of the FTURK, is the involvement of each member of the trade union.

“In 2022, we have a lot of work to do to create a really working system of social partnership. We must act collectively and make every effort to improve the well-being of employees and their families together. Primary trade union organizations should be confident in their abilities and know that they have the support of the Federation of Trade Unions behind them,” assured Satybaldy Dauletalin.

Recall that by the decision of the General Council of the FTURK, the Federation and its member organizations will spend 2022 under the auspices of social partnership. The main goal is to work out and implement, together with social partners represented by the government and employers, a number of measures to improve labor legislation, improve the social and labor rights of employees, increase wages and create decent working conditions for ordinary trade union members.

Media Center of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan