Trade union: "There is a need to increase the salaries of power engineers In Kazakhstan»

Salaries at enterprises for the production and distribution of heat and electricity in the country have not changed for twenty years, Chairman of the Kazakhstan Branch Trade Union of Power Engineers Orazbek Bekbas said.

In his opinion, the energy industry of Kazakhstan in terms of salary and prestige of the profession closes the list not only among the CIS countries, but also production enterprises in the country. The salary of power engineers is 6.86% lower than in the country.

- As a result, this leads to an outflow of personnel to other, higher-paid industries, as well as to neighboring states. For comparison, the salary of energy workers in our neighbors is 21% higher than in the whole country. In the Republic of Belarus this figure is 28%, and in the Kyrgyz Republic – 44%, - noted Bekbas.

The expert fears that with the depreciation of fixed assets on average up to 60%, the turnover of personnel in the key industry for the country's economy threatens to stop power plants.

According to him, every year the number of applicants entering the heat and power specialties decreases. Enterprises are forced to retain specialists who have reached the maximum retirement age.

In addition, there is an increase in technological violations due to the deterioration of equipment (last year more than 4 thousand violations, 11% more than in 2019). According to Bekbas, increase in industrial accidents (22 cases), which resulted in 14 deaths, is alarming.

- Unfortunately, our repeated appeals to the government, the Parliament, the Ministries of Energy, Labor and Social Protection of the Population and the National Economy on the issue of increasing wages for energy workers are not resolved. The way out of the situation is seen in a simultaneous increase the wages of power engineers to the average level in the regions, which can only be done if the tariff is approved taking into account this level, - the head of the industry trade union said.

Unofficial translation