The deputies of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, after consideration at the plenary session of the Chamber, adopted the law “On ratification of the Convention on Part-time Work” (Convention 175).
The draft law was presented to the senators by the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Kazakhstan Serik Shapkenov, who recalled that this document was supported at the 40th meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission on International Treaties of the Republic of Kazakhstan on October 18, 2019.
“The Convention on Part-time Work was adopted at the General Conference of the International Labour Organization on June 24, 1994. The Convention regulates the protection of the rights and interests of part–time workers, similar to the rights of full-time workers in relation to: the right to collective bargaining; occupational safety and health; maternity protection, the provision of annual paid leave; non-discrimination in the field of work and occupation,” the head of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs said.
This Convention applies to all branches of economic activity, with the exception of certain categories of workers and enterprises (article 3 of the Convention). In turn, the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan provides for the specifics of legal regulation of the labor of certain categories of employees by other laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Article 8 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
Thus, the adoption of the Convention will not oblige employers to establish part-time working hours for employees working in areas where part-time working hours cannot be established (healthcare, law enforcement, and others).
“According to the Bureau of National Statistics, according to the results of the 4th quarter of 2021, about 470 thousand workers in various industries were employed part-time. About half of them were employed less than 20 hours a week. Most of them were employed in agriculture, education and industry,” Serik Shapkenov informed.
According to the Convention, the term “part-time worker” means an employee who works less than the normal working time of a full-time employee and is in a comparable situation.
In accordance with the Convention, measures should be taken to ensure that the basic wages of part-time workers should not be less than the basic wages of full-time workers in a comparable situation calculated by the same methods.
In turn, similarly to the Convention, national labor legislation provides for state guarantees in the field of remuneration of employees (paragraph 1 of Articles 103, 106 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan)
The Convention also provides that social security systems for part-time workers should be similar to those for full-time workers. These conditions can be determined in proportion to the length of working time, contributions or earnings.
It should be noted that similarly, national labor and social legislation does not restrict the rights of part-time workers compared to full-time workers.
In particular, the payment for the loss of income from the compulsory social insurance system directly depends on the size of the average monthly insured income of an employee and the length of his participation in the system, and does not depend on the form or type of his employment.
“The ratification of the Convention will not entail negative socio-economic consequences and financial costs from the state budget. We believe that the adoption of the Convention will not lead to labor disputes regarding discrimination of part-time workers. At the same time, the adoption of the Convention will ensure the protection of the labor rights of workers engaged in labor activities and confirm Kazakhstan’s commitment to compliance and implementation of international standards in this area,” Serik Shapkenov summed up.
Having considered the document at the plenary session of the Chamber, the deputies of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted the law “On ratification of the Convention on Part-time Work (Convention 175)”.