Low tariffs are the main problem of low wages in the energy sector of the region. This was told during a meeting with the Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan Satybaldy Dauletalin in Atyrau CHP.
During a working trip to Atyrau region, the Chairman of the FTURK visited Atyrau CHP.
The company, which has almost 60 years of history, provides heat and electricity to Atyrau and the region. At the same time, the tariff for the population is 5 tenge per 1 kW/h. The marginal prices for electric energy for the population in Atyrau remain the lowest compared to other regions of the country due to the discounts that the local gas supplier makes to the region as part of the social program. For comparison, in the capital, 1 kW / h costs the population 15.22 tenge.
According to Maksot Alenov, General Director of Atyrau CHP JSC, if the average monthly salary in the region in the 4th quarter of 2021 amounted to 420 thousand tenge, then at the CHP this figure was 232 thousand tenge.
“The low wages of power engineers by the standards of the region are the result of a low tariff policy. The Antimonopoly Agency has determined an indexation rate of 4% for five years, which is almost twice lower than the inflation rate. Despite the fact that last year we increased the wages of employees of the CHP by 25 percent, it still remains low. Now we are considering the issue of raising wages by another 15% from March of this year,” Maksot Alenov said and appealed to the Chairman of the FTURK Satybaldy Dauletalin with a request: “I ask for the assistance of the Federation of Trade Unions in raising this issue before the relevant department (Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan) and the Committee on Regulation of Natural Monopolies of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”
Taking into account the appeal of the head of the energy company, the Chairman of the FTURK Satybaldy Dauletalin noted that the Federation of Trade Unions has already raised tariff issues with social partners and keeps the solution of this issue under control.
“The Federation has repeatedly appealed to the government of the country on this issue. And we are ready to raise this issue again. Given the complexity of the economic situation, we will again raise this issue with the social partners. The main thing here is to balance the interests of the population, the enterprise and its employees,” the Head of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan noted.
Satybaldy Dauletalin also recalled that certain issues of social incentives for employees should be taken into account in the “constitution” of enterprises – the collective agreement.
“The collective agreement makes it possible to provide additional social guarantees for employees. Therefore, we recommend working together with employee representatives on its content, paying special attention to the opinion of the labor collective,” the Chairman of the FTURK noted.
However, the employees of the enterprise themselves told Dauletalin about the content and, most importantly, the execution of the collective agreement operating at the Atyrau CHP of Satybaldy. So the driver-crawler Ayan Kulshiev noted that he is satisfied with the working conditions, the employer fulfills all social guarantees.
In turn, Bagytzhan Zhumagaliyev, a 29-year-old electrician who has been working at the CHP for almost 10 years, said that working at the enterprise, he was able to get a higher education in his specialty, gain experience and is not going to leave the CHP.
“10 years ago, we came to the CHP about ten young workers, only two remained, one of them me. It all depends on the person, if he wants to get a profession and learn from senior colleagues, to contribute to the development of the energy industry, he will do it,” Bagytzhan Zhumagaliyev said.
By the way, the turnover of personnel for the energy sector in the Atyrau region, where more profitable enterprises in the oil industry operate, is another problem. Energy engineers are leaving for the oil industry. And as the head of the CHP noted at the end of the visit of the Chairman of the FTURK, the energy industry hopes to solve the problem of low wages with the support of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Media Center of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan