The seminar meeting on the topic of “Social partnership in oil and gas field” was held at PetroKazakhstan Oil Products (Shymkent) on April 29-30 this year. The seminar meeting was attended by the parties of oil and gas social partnership represented by: the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, KAZENERGY Association, KazMunayGas NC JSC, Kazakhstan Branch Trade Union of Oil and Gas Complex, Branch Trade Union of Chemical, Petrochemical and Related Industries Employees, Kazakhstan Oil and Gas Branch Trade Union.
In her welcoming speech, G.Kurmanbekova, Deputy Akim of Shymkent, noted the relevance of such events to discuss social partnership development and regulation of labour relations at major city-forming enterprises in the region.
B.Makhanov, Deputy Director of Oil Industry Development Department of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, reported on the prospects of the activities performed by the Sectoral Commission on Social Partnership and Regulation of Social and Labor Relations under the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. L.Akhmurzina, Executive Director of KAZENERGY Association, presented the priorities for improving labour legislation and the work progress of the Working Group on the development of the Sector Agreement in the oil and gas, oil refining and petrochemical industries of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2020-2022.
B.Kalzhanov, Head of the Labour Inspection and Migration Agency of Shymkent, participated in the meeting and reported on some issues regarding the activities of the republican enterprises, including: the social responsibility of employers to socially vulnerable employees, increasing of salaries for low-paid workers. He also covered the issues of labour rights protection in connection with wage arrears. From the beginning of 2019, the production output at 349 republican enterprises amounted to KZT 1.1 bn, wage arrears were paid off and the rights of more than 7.9 thousand employees were protected. 277 assignments were issued to the heads of these enterprises, 276 fines for KZT 39.9 mln. were imposed on them. Ye. Rakhimbergenov, Director of Social Policy Department of KazMunayGas NC JSC, told on the measures undertaken to ensure social sustainability in KazMunayGas NC JSC group.
Trade union representatives reported on their activities to develop social partnership and regulate labour relations through collective bargaining, implement the Sector Agreement for 2017-2019, and to participate in elaboration of the Sector Agreement for 2020-2022.
In the end of the seminar meeting, the participants provided their recommendations to improve the work of the social policy and to build social dialogue in labour collectives, as well as the prospects of the work on drafting the Sector Agreement for 2020-2022 in the oil and gas industry. The seminar meetings serve as an effective platform to discuss problematic social and labour issues of the industry. It is planned to hold 7 offsite events in the regions of the republic in 2019 in order to discuss the most topical issues: the collective bargaining specifics and goals, the ways to resolve collective labour disputes, respect and protect labour rights through collective bargaining, labour remuneration, implementation of the Sector Agreement provisions, etc.
