A delegation of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan headed by Chairman Satybaldy Dauletalin is on a working trip to Zhambyl region.
During the visit, the Chairman of the FTURK took part in a meeting of the regional tripartite commission on social partnership and regulation of social and labor relations chaired by Akim of Zhambyl region Berdibek Saparbayev.
Speaking about the development of social and labor relations in the region, the head of the labor inspection department of the Akimat of Zhambyl region, Ernar Yesirkepov, noted that since the beginning of the year, 30 inspections have been carried out at enterprises, during which 11 violations of labor legislation were revealed. According to these facts, administrative measures have been taken. According to the speaker, as part of the implementation of the Roadmap, 414 employers have increased the salaries of more than 38 thousand employees by an average of 26 percent since the beginning of the year.
“However, despite the increase in wages for employees of the branches of Kazakhtelecom JSC, Kazpost JSC and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy NC, the remuneration of employees of these enterprises remains the lowest in the region. Taking advantage of the visit of the Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions, we ask you to consider this issue at the Republican Trilateral Commission,” Yernar Yesirkepov said.
In turn, the chairman of the Territorial Association of Trade Unions of Zhambyl region Baglan Karasholakov noted the importance of combining the efforts of social partners for the further effective development of social and labor relations, in particular, to prevent occupational injuries, the development of collective contractual relations, expansion of coverage of trade union membership.
In this regard, Akim of Zhambyl region Berdibek Saparbayev recalled his assignment to social partners: together with the Trade Union Center at the district level to conduct explanatory work at enterprises and organizations to create trade union organizations.
Addressing the members of the regional tripartite commission on social partnership and regulation of social and labor relations, Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan Satybaldy Dauletalin stressed the need for joint actions by all parties of social partnership to improve the welfare of employees of enterprises. According to him, out of 79 labor conflicts registered last year, only 31 enterprises had trade unions.
“The presence of trade unions in the resolution of labor disputes ensures the achievement of a favorable result for all parties to the conflict while observing the necessary legal procedures,” stressed Satybaldy Dauletalin.
As the Chairman of the FTURK noted, in the Zhambyl region for the period from 2021 to the present, a single fact of a labor conflict that occurred at the enterprise of Zhambyl Cement Production Company LLP has been registered.
“This is one of the illustrative examples in the republic. On the one hand, the minimum of conflict situations in the region indicates that effective work is being carried out to prevent the emergence of problematic issues in the social and labor sphere. This is confirmed by such examples of interaction between the parties of social partnership, as regular discussion of issues of prevention of labor disputes at meetings of the Zhambyl regional tripartite Commission on Social Partnership and regulation of social and labor relations,” Satybaldy Dauletalin said.
Also, according to him, Zhambyl region is among the leaders in the coverage of collective agreements: as of March 1 this year, 10.4 thousand collective agreements were concluded in the region with coverage of 94% of enterprises, whereas a year ago there were almost half as many – 5.5 thousand (coverage of 56%).
In this regard, the Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions noted that, despite such high rates, only 10 percent of collective agreements were concluded with the participation of trade union organizations.
“Who on behalf of employees is a signatory to 90 percent of collective agreements? How high-quality and effective are these collective agreements signed without the participation of trade unions? I ask you to consider this issue within the framework of the trilateral commission,” Satybaldy Dauletalin addressed the members of the commission, and said: “We have come up with a proposal to the Government to create expert groups with the participation of trade union members within regions, cities and districts to analyze the content of collective agreements. Since the “constitution” of any enterprise is this document – a collective agreement. Thanks to its high-quality content, it is possible to avoid many conflict issues in the relationship between the employer and employees.”
According to the Chairman of the FTURK, the main cause of labor disputes and conflicts in recent years has increasingly become low wages. The second reason is the unwillingness of employers to negotiate with employees.
“Until the employer understands that the profit of the entire enterprise and its prosperity directly depend on the well-being of ordinary workers, their satisfaction with wages, labor disputes cannot be avoided. I urge all social partners to avoid such an attitude towards employees of their enterprises,” said Satybaldy Dauletalin.
According to labor legislation, the prerogative of forming the wage fund belongs to the employer, the state only determines the minimum wage. In this regard, he noted that the Federation of Trade Unions, being a key social partner of the Government and republican employers’ associations, regularly puts forward its social initiatives at meetings of the RTK and the Government, contributing to the improvement of social and labor relations.
“We have made a number of proposals to improve the wage system, including mandatory indexation of the minimum wage; ensuring the participation of trade unions in production management, including salary negotiations on a mandatory basis. The issue of promoting social justice is one of the main tasks of trade unions,” the Chairman of the FTURK stressed.
In addition, Satybaldy Dauletalin recalled that the Federation of Trade Unions conducted an analysis of regional agreements for compliance with the norms of the General Agreement for 2021-2023. According to him, the regional agreement of the Zhambyl region as a whole proceeds from the General Agreement. However, for the most part, the agreement is declarative, whereas it is an important document of social partnership regulating the development of dialogue and determining the quality of labor relations in the region.
“When social partners work together on a regional agreement, it is necessary to pay attention to filling it with high-quality content that would contribute to improving the well-being of employees of enterprises and organizations. Control over the execution of the adopted documents is no less important, and the role of broad coverage of the work being carried out is also important,” the Head of the FTURK stated.
He also noted that all the appeals voiced during the working trip to Zhambyl region will not be ignored by the Federation of Trade Unions.
Concluding the meeting of the regional tripartite commission on social partnership and regulation of social and labor relations, Akim of Zhambyl region Berdibek Saparbayev assured that all the recommendations voiced by the Chairman of the FTURK will be taken into account.
“All the issues raised today will be considered at the next meeting of the regional trilateral commission. The social partners of Zhambyl region understand that trade unions are the main partners in the development of social and labor relations,” concluded the akim of Zhambyl region.
Media Center of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan