General Labour Market Trends And Latest/Likely Trends In Employment Litigation (Global Legal Insight: Employment & Labour Law – Third Edition)

Labour relationships in Kazakhstan are governed not only by the provisions of the Labour Code of Kazakhstan, but also by special legislative acts (on civil service, on internal affairs authorities, etc.). The procedure for consideration of labour disputes in courts is specified by the Civil Procedural Code of Kazakhstan and Labour Code of Kazakhstan. In addition, this area is covered by the Regulatory Resolution of Supreme Court No. 9, dated 19 December 2003.

When considering labour disputes, the courts should distinguish civil and legal relations and labour relations. The nature of employment relationships may be expressed by situations where an employee performs certain work by a particular occupation, qualification, position subject to the internal code of conduct, and the employer pays the employee a salary and ensures working conditions determined by the labour laws.

Courts not only restore labour rights infringed, but also identify the causes and conditions that led to such infringement, and conduct preventive work for elimination and prevention of future infringements. The court may make special rulings to the state authorities, public organisations and officials to eliminate violations of the law, causes and conditions leading to labour violations.

The competence and powers of the courts in the area of labour disputes is determined not only by the scope of disputes within the court jurisdiction, but also by the fact that in labour hearings the court may, on its own discretion, impute to the defendant's part a third party guilty of a gross violation of the labour laws. It happens that in the case under consideration, the court found misconduct of officials. In this case, the court, pursuant to Article 235.3 of the Civil Procedural Code, shall pass a special ruling to bring guilty directors to disciplinary and, sometimes, criminal liability.

The judge, when accepting an application on a labour dispute, shall solely decide on the acceptance or refusal of the application for consideration. The right to initiate legal proceedings is given not only to the employee or employer concerned, but also to the public prosecutor, as well as the trade union. An application filed with the court for consideration of a labour dispute is not treated as a complaint filed to a higher authority (abolishing the decision of a lower authority). Therefore, the court cannot cancel, modify or uphold the decision of the conciliation commission; it decides the dispute on merits. In accordance with the procedure provided for by the Labour Code, a labour dispute can be considered by the Conciliation Commission.

The most common types of labour disputes in Kazakhstan include the remedies of reinstatement in job, and salary recovery. Recent years (since 2011) show that this list has been added to, with other labour disputes such as a claim for salary indexation due to national currency depreciation, and a claim for the allocation of compensation for harm caused to the employee's health in the course of work performance.

To apply to authorities for the consideration of an individual labour dispute there is the following timing:

reinstatement in a job − three months after the service of a copy of the employer's act on the termination of the employment agreement; other labour disputes − one year after the day when the employee or the employer knew or should have...