The mission of the International Trade Union Confederation headed by the Deputy Secretary General of the IPC Owen Tudor visited the TOP Trade Union Center of Almaty and met with the trade union activists of the city.
The meeting was opened by Deputy Chairman of the FTURK Gulnar Zhumageldiyeva, who told about the purpose of the visit of the mission of the ITUC to Kazakhstan.
The Chairman of the Trade Union Center of Almaty, Zauresh Umirbayeva, acquainted the delegates with the activities of the Trade Union Center, including its coordination work with trade union organizations of the city.
“In order to develop a constructive dialogue with employers and government agencies, the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan has declared 2022 the Year of Social Partnership. In the Year of Social Partnership, we are taking concrete measures to improve the conditions and wages of Kazakhstani workers. Regular meetings with employers help us in this, during which we openly talk about problems that need to be solved together. The tasks facing the parties of the social partnership are implemented through the work of the trilateral commission,” Zauresh Umirbayeva stressed.
The Deputy Secretary General of the ITUC, Owen Tudor, asked a number of questions of interest to the ITUC mission. We are talking about the interaction of trade union organizations and employers at the regional level, about the problems that workers face after the January events, as well as about topical issues of labor legislation that the parties to labor relations face.
The guests’ interest was also aroused by the issues of the minimum wage, the methods of its calculation. The involvement of regional structures, branches of branch trade unions in the work to increase the level of income of the population and the measures they take to solve the problems of low wages were discussed in detail.
Gulnara Zhumageldiyeva stressed that currently work is underway at the level of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan to develop a methodology for calculating the minimum wage.
Representatives of the ITUC Mission were also interested in the issue of interaction with alternative trade union organizations in Almaty.
The trade union leaders of Almaty, D.Altybaev, A.Kurmantai, A.Nesipkaliev, S. Tymbasbaev, B.Toksharaev, S.Kali, who spoke, answering the questions of the members of the delegation of the ITUC, briefly told about the work carried out in the industries to protect the labor rights and interests of workers, about the role of the collective agreement as a guarantor of social stability at the enterprise.
The lawyer of the Professional Center Elmira Mustafanova told about the work of the branch of the Legal Clinic to provide advice and improve legal literacy.
At the end of the meeting, Owen Tudor thanked the representatives of the trade unions of Almaty for the warm welcome and suggested devoting the next meeting to discussing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
It should be noted that the work carried out by the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan in recent years on the further development of international cooperation has shown the correctness of the chosen path. Contacts have been successfully resumed, new guidelines have been identified in cooperation with international partners. Strong, independent and representative trade unions, as well as global solidarity, are more important than ever to achieve the set goals. The Almaty Trade Union expressed confidence that Kazakhstan will take a worthy place in promoting advanced world standards, and the Federation of Trade Unions will become a reliable conductor of the interests of Kazakhstani workers in the domestic and international arena.