Today, as part of the republican campaign “How are you, primary?”, the First Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tinikeev met with the labor collective of Teplotransit Karaganda LLP,
During the meeting, an open dialogue was held on the results of the work of the trade union and topical issues of employees.
Chairman of the Trade Union Center of the Karaganda region Bolat Zhumabekov, opening the meeting, noted that the enterprise “Teplototransit Karaganda” LLP works around the clock to provide life support and heat supply to residents of the regional center. The company employs 993 employees.
Olga Vershinina, Chairman of the primary trade union organization of Teplotransit Karaganda LLP, presented the work of the trade union committee, which is part of the Karaganda regional branch of the Kazakhstan Branch Trade Union of Business Workers “YNTYMAQ”. She informed about the additional social guarantees provided for in the collective agreement of the enterprise.
The trade union committee said that the collective agreement contains norms on the payment of an Industry coefficient (1.5) to production workers, material motivation for continuous work experience, compensation for sanatorium treatment, provision of high-quality special clothing and footwear, provision of women with additional paid days for urgent needs, and employees working in harmful conditions are provided with tea and milk and other social benefits.
The Financial director of Teplotransit Karaganda LLP, Daniyar Baizhanov, acquainted the meeting participants with the main directions of the company’s work and measures to increase the remuneration of employees.
In 2022, the wages of employees were increased in February and March by 10% and 13%. He made a proposal to amend the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Natural Monopolies”, regarding the definition of thermal energy to the list of strategic goods.
Problematic issues of the labor collective were also voiced at the meeting. It was noted that the average salary in Teplotransit Karaganda LLP is 160 thousand tenge, which is 2 times lower than the average salary in Kazakhstan. In addition, there are not enough production personnel – 192 vacancies (welders, locksmiths for maintenance of heating networks, repair locksmiths, masters of production sites, electrical personnel, kipovtsy).
According to him, Teplotransit Karaganda LLP serves 448.1 km of the city’s heating networks, the average wear is 71.2 percent
Summing up the meeting, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions Mukhtar Tinikeev noted the relevance of the voiced problematic issues and spoke about the measures taken by the Federation of Trade Unions to develop social and labor relations and improve the welfare of workers.
First of all, Mukhtar Tinikeev shared with the participants of the meeting the most important international event – the restoration of membership of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the International Trade Union Confederation.
“On November 17, the Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions took part in the V Congress of the ITUC in Australia, where the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan had the opportunity to restore membership in the ranks of this international organization. The MCP consists of 163 states and it is there that all ideas for the protection of people’s labor rights originate,” Mukhtar Tinikeev stressed.
He also recalled that in 2023 the Federation of Trade Unions will preside over the Council of Trade Unions of Central Asia.
Along with this, Mukhtar Tinikeev paid special attention to the development of social partnership.
“As you know, for the first time, three Republican associations of trade unions of the country worked together on the development of the current General Agreement and we managed to include a number of important norms in this voluminous document,” the First Deputy Chairman of the FTURK said.
At the same time, he highly appreciated the inclusion in the Tripartite Agreement of the Karaganda region of a point on wage indexation.
“For example, out of 153,934 collective agreements in Kazakhstan, only 1,895 provide for wage indexation. Wage indexation is the first step in order to improve the living standards of our workers,” Mukhtar Tinikeev believes.
In addition, according to him, the collective agreement should apply only to trade union members.
“In your team, 50% of trade union members are 446 people. I believe that this is the merit of the trade union organization, the leader of the trade union, who managed to conclude a collective agreement and introduce certain benefits into it,” the speaker stressed.
Mukhtar Tinikeev added that the Federation of Trade Unions is actively raising the issue of raising the minimum wage.
“Raising the minimum wage from 60,000 to 70,000 tenge from January 1, 2023 is progress, but there is no methodology for calculating the minimum wage in our country. We believe that this issue should be approached based on the recommendations of the International Labour Organization. There is a Keitz Index, approved by the ILO, which says that the minimum wage should be 50% of the average wage. Our minimum wage is 20% of the average salary. We always raise the question of what indicators make up the size of the minimum wage. And today our initiatives have been heard by the President, who instructed the government to develop an appropriate methodology,” the First Deputy Chairman of the FTURK said.
Speaking about the promotion of trade union initiatives, he urged the professional leaders of the region to take advantage of the opportunity to run for deputies of the Majilis of the Parliament under the majoritarian system in order to be able to improve the lives of labor collectives and protect the interests of workers in the legislature.
At the meeting, for long–term and conscientious work, personal contribution to the development of the life support and heat supply system of the region, active participation in the trade union movement of the Karaganda region and in connection with the celebration of the Independence Day of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the following employees of Teplototransit Karaganda LLP were rewarded with Certificates of Honor: Abishev Zhanibek Alibekovich – a locksmith for the maintenance of heating networks; Alfiya Takhirovna Malakhovskaya – an engineer Novgorodsky operational district; Yelizarova Yana Vladimirovna – process engineer of the adjustment service.