Representatives of the MTSZN informed their colleagues from the CIS countries about the measures taken to improve the social and labor sphere

On October 28 this year, the XXXIV meeting of the Advisory Council on Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Population of the CIS member States was held online. The leadership of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter – the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection) informed the participants of the meeting about the measures taken to improve the social and labor sphere, ensure social justice and decent work. During the event, issues of improving the regulatory framework in the field of social security of the population in the CIS and the possibility of exchanging information and experience on the regulation of remote work were also discussed.

The event was attended by heads of relevant ministries from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation, representatives of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the General Confederation of Trade Unions, the Interstate Statistical Committee, the CIS Executive Committee and a number of country organizations.

The meeting was opened by the Chairman of the Advisory Council, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus Irina Kostevich. In her speech, she thanked the CIS representatives for their participation, and also spoke about the implementation of the decisions of the previous, XXXIII meeting of the Advisory Council, held on October 29, 2020.

After that, Irina Kostevich transferred the right of chairmanship from the Republic of Belarus, which presided in 2020-2021, to the Republic of Kazakhstan for the period 2021-2022.

In turn, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Kazakhstan Serik Shapkenov during his speech noted the high quality of the work of the Advisory Council, and also recalled that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Almaty Declaration, which defined the goals and principles of the CIS.

«The CIS is a unique and universal dialogue platform where cooperation is developing aimed at strengthening trust and mutual understanding, promoting initiatives to support stability and security in the CIS space.

The Advisory Council responds promptly to the realities of modern life, as evidenced by the ongoing work on the exchange of best practices between the participating states, which is moving into the format of developing and coordinating the regulatory framework in the social and labor sphere,» the minister said.

Serik Shapkenov stressed that the members of the Advisory Council have done a lot of work on the development of conceptual documents in the field of labor rationing, professional standards, working conditions in the workplace, etc. And the decisions taken at the meetings make it possible to introduce documents adopted at the interstate level into the practice of the work of the CIS member states in the field of social and labor relations.

«Within the framework of this meeting, we will consider a number of topical issues related to the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including law enforcement practice, exchange of information and experience on regulating remote work, ensuring occupational safety and health, including accident investigation», Serik Shapkenov concluded.

First Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Kazakhstan Akmadi Sarbasov informed the participants of the meeting about Kazakhstan's experience in improving the regulatory framework in the field of social security of citizens.

«On October 12 this year, the President signed the law "On Amendments and Additions to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on social protection of certain categories of citizens». The law is based on the proposals of members of the working group of the Senate and the Majilis of the Parliament, the Coordinating Council for Persons with Disabilities under the Government, as well as the public and the expert community. The Law contains 19 conceptual amendments and provides for amendments to 16 legislative acts. Starting from next month, people with disabilities and their families will begin to receive new benefits, feel innovations," Akmadi Sarbasov shared.

Having told about the norms stipulated in the mentioned law, the First Vice-Minister informed about the adoption of two other laws: "On social Entrepreneurship" and "On inclusive Education".

«The first of them defines the concept of social entrepreneurship, the main tasks and categories of subjects of social entrepreneurship, the mechanism for assigning the status of a social entrepreneur, and also provides extensive measures of state support. In general, the law is aimed at stimulating both business activity and employment of persons with disabilities.

The second law, adopted on the initiative of the Ministry of Education, is aimed at realizing the rights of persons with special educational needs at all levels of education. Amendments and additions have been made to the laws on education, on the rights of the child, on social protection of persons with disabilities», he informed.

Akmadi Sarbasov also noted that, in accordance with the instructions of the Head of State, work is underway to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The relevant bill is under consideration in the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

«The Ministry is also developing the Concept of the Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It will be adopted in 2022, and we plan to adopt the Code itself in 2023. One of the main innovations of the Social Code will be a separate chapter on improving the social service and providing special social services.

The model of the social service will be modernized – accreditation, certification of social workers, a new model of per capita financing will be introduced, the status of social workers will be increased and much more», Akmadi Sarbasov added.

The First Vice Minister also spoke about a number of difficulties faced by employers and representatives of the personnel service, including government agencies, in connection with the forced transfer of employees to a remote work format, especially in terms of imperfections of labor legislation.

«In this regard, amendments were adopted to the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan this year on the regulation of labor relations related to remote work. So, there are new modes of remote work, which are established by agreement of the parties: permanently, temporarily or combined.

In addition, the norms of the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan were specified on accounting for working hours in cases when the performance of work cannot be fixed by the employer with a specific time, as well as on accounting in the employment contract for the time during which the employee must be available for communication with the employer. Norms were provided for regulating the procedure and terms of remote work for employees performing official duties, whose work is regulated by special laws», Akmadi Sarbasov informed.

At the same time, he stressed that despite the remote format of work, the employer is not relieved of responsibility for ensuring the requirements of labor legislation, including on issues of employee safety and labor protection.

«At the same time, as part of the latest changes in the field of safe working conditions, it is additionally stipulated that the procedure for compliance by employees engaged in remote work with the requirements for safety and labor protection, as well as for ensuring the safe performance of work duties, is determined by the act of the employer.

In addition, the duties of the employer on safety and labor protection issues are differentiated into mandatory and solved by agreement of the parties, taking into account the specifics of the work», he concluded.