Calls for More Checks on Foreign Employers

Clashes between local and foreign oil-industry workers in western Kazakstan, coupled with recent protests by miners at Karaganda, have highlighted the limited role the government plays in how labour relations are handled in those parts of the economy where foreign investors are dominant.



More than 100 Turkish workers battled 300 local-hire staff on October 20 at a construction firm belonging to Tengizchevroil in the Atyrau region.



Several weeks before this, at the end of September, miners working for Mittal Steel Temirtau in the Karaganda region went on strike following the death of 41 men in a mine accident. The strikers demanded a pay increase and better working conditions.



Eyewitnesses said the latest clash at Atyrau, in which more than 100 people ended up in hospital, blew up out of a quarrel among a handful of workers. A similar fight, albeit on a smaller scale, happened at the same firm in April 2005 when local staff demanded that they should have Kazakstan-national foremen instead of Turks.



Commentators believe the latest incident was the product of simmering discontent among local workers who believe that foreign managers discriminate against them and that there is an unspoken dividing line between them and the more privileged foreigners.



One NBCentralAsia analyst said the incident showed the need for fair employment practices at such foreign-funded ventures. “More than that, it suggests there is significant potential for conflict,” he added.



Analysts say these recurring incidents take place because the government exerts little control over economic sectors where Kazakstan citizens work for foreign employers. They say that the official inspection agencies often prefer to look at whether a foreign investor is complying with its environmental and social development obligations, rather than at its record on employment,



In a first sign that the authorities may be about to step in to improve things and keep a closer eye on foreign employers, Dariga Nazarbaeva, the Kazak president’s daughter and a member of parliament, has published an article in the weekly Karavan in which she voiced strong criticism of working conditions at the Mittal-owned mine. She also slammed government agencies for shifting their own responsibility for looking after vulnerable groups onto the employers.



Nazarbaeva announced she will shortly be submitting a revised version of Kazakstan’s Labour Code, drafted in conjunction with a parliamentary group called Aimak. The proposed changes to the legislation include increasing the powers of the trade unions, establishing a minimum hourly wage, and setting a cap on the number of hours that can be worked as overtime.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)