Collective Bargaining Agreements

Regulatory and legal framework:

The Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Chapter 14); Methodical recommendations for development of employees' remuneration system in privately owned entities dated 27 May 2016 (Chapter 4). The labour legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on collective bargaining agreements is not comprehensive and contains only basic information about collective bargaining agreements drafting, negotiating, and signing procedures, as well as the content and structure of collective bargaining agreements.

A collective bargaining agreement is an agreement setting major employment terms and conditions in a company. The current labour legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK) requires only one collective agreement in a company, whereas the old version of the Labour Code of the RK did not set any requirements as to the number of collective bargaining agreements in a company.

Content and structure

The labour legislation of the RK requires the following mandatory provisions be included in the collective bargaining agreement:

labour rate setting, remuneration systems, the tariff rates and salaries, allowances and additional payments to employees, including those involved in heavy work, work with harmful and (or) dangerous working conditions; inter-category coefficients setting; duration of work time and rest time, paid leaves; arrangement of healthy and safe working and living conditions, financing measures for safety and labour protection, improving the health protection; setting conditions for the trade union's activity; collective bargaining agreement amendment procedures; control over and responsibilities of employees and an employer respectively for fulfillment of the collective bargaining agreement terms and conditions; acts of the employer that require taking into account opinion of employees' representatives; procedure for admission to heavy work, work with harmful and (or) dangerous working conditions of individuals who reached the retirement age. Also the labour legislation of the RK stipulates certain optional provisions that may be included in a collective bargaining agreement, as follows:

indexation of wages; ensuring the employment, training, professional development, retraining and employment of the discharged employees; certain guarantees provided to employees elected to the bodies of the trade union and elected representatives, as well as conditions for undertaking their activities; payment of maternity...