Amendments to the Labour Code of Kazakhstan which came into effect on 1 January 2016, clearly favour employers.

Labour Code amendments signed by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in November last year have been in effect since 1 January 2016, and clearly favour employers.

The most prominent changes in the labour code are as follows:

Termination

  • The termination notice period for the employee can be extended beyond one month
  • An employees' application for reassignment can be recalled only with employer consent
  • The employer is no longer required to notify an employee on probation seven calendar days prior to the cancellation of their labour agreement
  • Under certain circumstances, employees can be reallocated to another employer and their existing labour agreement terminated
  • A reduction in company activity, and the absence of an employee for more than one month with an unclarified reason, can form the basis for an employer to terminate a labour agreement.

Business trips and salary

  • The coefficient of compensation for working during weekends and holidays is reduced from 2.0 to 1.5
  • Withholding unspent advances for business trips, expenses for unconfirmed business trips, education reimbursements and unearned salary advances require notice - but not employee consent
  • The guarantee of 2/3 of an employee's average monthly salary in case of downtime is removed. Employers now pay only the amount reflective of the work actually completed, regardless of the period of downtime.

Vacation

  • One part of the annual leave should not be shorter than two calendar weeks.

Disciplinary and material responsibility

  • The limit of material responsibility of the employee in the amount of one monthly salary is removed
  • The clause of non-competition and corresponding material responsibility between the employee and the employer can be included in the labour agreement.

Recruitment

  • The requirement to provide a written explanation of recruitment decline with regard to pregnant women, people with children younger than three years, teenagers and disabled persons is removed
  • The automatic prolongation of a labour agreement to the indefinite period occurs only after the second prolongation (previously, prolongation to indefinite occurred after the original labour agreement expired)
  • The minimum period of a labour agreement for recent graduates is decreased from two years to one.
  • The probation period for directors, chief accountants and their deputies can be increased to up to six months (previously, the maximum was three months)
  • The promotion of an employee to another position is now possible without interruption to the probation period set in the original employment agreement.

How we can help

There is no legal requirement to renew labour agreements with existing employees provided they remain valid according to the legislation. However it is possible to include amendments to the labour agreements, and our local experts can assist with this process.

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