In connection with the coronavirus pandemic declared in the world and the sudden threat to the safety and health of people, the old requirements have changed significantly and new requirements have appeared for the organization of work, ensuring the safety of labor activities and the health of workers, the rules of law governing these relations have changed significantly.

So from May 16 of this year, it was put into effect Law Of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On amendments and additions to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on labor issues.” The above act, first of all, affected the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, almost every article of which was changed, clarified or supplemented.

Briefly about some of the adjustments made:

•   One of the main novelties is related to the maintenance of an information system designed to automate the accounting of labor contracts, labor activity and the number of employees – a unified system for recording labor contracts (ESUTD), where the employer is obliged to enter information on the conclusion and termination of an employment contract with an employee, changes made to it and (or) additions.

This requirement applies to existing and newly concluded contracts..

At the same time, the employee is entitled to receive information from the ESUTD about the employment contract and his labor activity, and the employer – to receive information from it about the labor activity of applicants (with their prior consent) and employees.

The rules for submitting and receiving such information have already been approved and began to operate on September 18 of this year. In accordance with them, ESUTD provides the following information:

1) details of the parties: individual identification number of the employer – natural person or business identification number of the employer – legal entity; individual employee identification number;

2) work in a certain specialty, profession, qualification or position (labor function);

3) place of performance of work;

4) the term of the employment contract;

5) the date of commencement of work;

6) the date of the conclusion and the serial number.

Also, the employer can add the following additional information:

1) working hours and rest;

2) grounds for termination of the employment contract;

3) military duty.

Information is provided by the employer by integrating the information system of staffing with ESUTD or through the state information portal “Electronic Labor Exchange” or other information systems for the automation of accounting of labor contracts, integrated with ESUTD.

For this, the employer organizes integration work in accordance with the order of the Acting Minister of Information and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated March 29, 2018 No. 123 “On approval of the rules for the integration of objects of informatization of” electronic government “or registers a personal account on the portal” Electronic Labor Exchange “, makes the necessary information, sends them to ESUTD, having signed the electronic digital signature of the enterprise.

Terms for entering information and information into ESUTD:

•   on newly concluded labor contracts – no later than 5 working days from the date of signing the labor contract by both parties;
•   on employment contracts, the validity of which has not expired – within 1 year from the date of entry into force of the Rules for enterprises with up to 2000 people, within 2 years – for enterprises with more than 2000 people;
•   on amendments and additions to the employment contract – no later than 15 calendar days from the date of their signing by both parties;
•  on the reinstatement of an employee at work – within 10 working days from the date of his reinstatement (indicating the date, number and body that made the decision on reinstatement)
•   on termination of an employment contract – no later than 3 working days from the date of termination of an employment contract.

If necessary, the employer, within 30 calendar days from the date of entering the initial information, corrects errors and deletes information if it is entered incorrectly.

 

It is also worth drawing the reader’s attention to the fact that according to the changes made:

•   An employment contract concluded for a specified period can be extended no more than two times;
•   The right of the employer to terminate the employment contract (by agreement of the parties) has been excluded without notifying the employee, subject to payment of compensation, now sending a notification and providing a response to it within 3 working days in writing is the obligation of the parties to the employment contract;
•  The right of the employer to draw up acts of the employer, labor contracts and amendments to them in the form of an electronic document certified by means of an electronic digital signature is legally enshrined;
•  Employers are given the right on a voluntary basis to create and join associations (associations, unions) of employers;
•   Expanded the rule regulating the possibility of the employer to terminate the employment contract with the employee on his own initiative due to the loss of confidence in the latter.
•   A norm has been introduced according to which the termination of an employment contract due to loss of confidence in the employee must be confirmed by an act of internal investigation, indicating in it the justifications confirming the commission of guilty actions or inaction by the employee. Termination of an employment contract on this basis is now carried out without observing the procedure for applying a disciplinary sanction.
•   The obligations of the Employer are supplemented by the obligations to: create a conciliation commission, in the manner determined by the code, to prevent discrimination against employees in terms of wages and production and living conditions;
•   Работник наделен правом требовать от работодателей выполнения ими соглашений и актов работодателя;
•   Particular attention is paid to labor protection. In order to improve the complex of measures for labor protection, a new concept of “labor protection management system” was introduced. From September 18 of this year began to operate  Cross-industry standard standards number of workers in labor protection services.
•   A new concept has appeared related to the risk of disability (or death) of an employee in the performance of labor (official) duties – “occupational risk”, and a number of interrelated concepts – “occupational risk management”, “occupational risk assessment”;
•   The general contractor is responsible for the overall coordination of work to comply with the requirements of safety and labor protection when carrying out work on the construction site simultaneously by several organizations.
•   The concept of a disciplinary offense includes, in addition to violation of labor discipline, also illegal, guilty behavior of employees;
•   The local labor inspection body is now empowered to consider appeals of employees, employers and their representatives on all issues of compliance with the labor legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, whereas previously only appeals on labor safety and protection were within its competence;
•   It is not allowed to conduct collective bargaining between the employer and employees without the participation of a trade union if a trade union has been created in this organization;
•   Clarified: conditions for secondment of workers and the procedure for transferring an employee to another job due to deteriorating health; cases when the employer is obliged to suspend the employee from work; the composition of commissions for organizing social partnership at various levels: republican, sectoral and regional, etc.;
•   the list of payments that are reserved for the employee if he was unlawfully suspended from work has been expanded and clarified.

 

The above list of changes made to the Labor Code is not complete, since we did not set ourselves the task of covering them in full.

We believe that a more detailed consideration of the most important changes, as well as their practical aspects, will be appropriate to highlight a little later in other articles.