Mechanism for regulating new forms of employment to be created in Kazakhstan — Shapkenov

A briefing on the implementation of the Address of the Head of State to the people of Kazakhstan dated Sep. 1, 2021, was held at the press center of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Serik Shapkenov answered the questions of journalists on issues of social protection and labor relations.

Among the first to be asked was the question of the incomplete amount of maternity payments received to women who were on maternity leave who worked in private media. The reason was the amendments to the Tax Code, adopted in July last year in terms of exempting non-state media organizations from paying taxes and related payments.

As you know, social contributions to the State Social Insurance Fund are not a tax levy regulated by the Tax Code, but a mandatory social payment of the employer for their employees, ensuring the participation of the latter in the compulsory social insurance system in case of social risk.

In accordance with the legislation, the Fund made social payments to media employees for the actual period of participation in the social insurance system, taking into account the average monthly income at the time of assignment of the payment.

That is, in fact, there are no violations of the law.

“But the workers who went on maternity leave should not suffer, and at present the interested state bodies are developing amendments to the legislation aimed at solving the current problem situation,” Shapkenov informed.

By the end of the year, he said, the bill will be submitted to the Parliament.

The next question was about the coefficients to the monthly calculated indices for the assignment of benefits to the disabled.

According to the ministry, in accordance with the Labor Code, the salary of an employee who has worked in full the standard of working hours and fulfilled the labor standards or labor obligations cannot be lower than the minimum wage (minimum wage).

That is, from January 2021, employers will be obliged to employees who receive wages below 60 thousand tenge to increase it to the established level. First of all, the increase in the minimum wage will affect the "low-paid" categories of workers.

Second, the employer, when setting the level of remuneration, is usually guided by certain indicators, one of which is the minimum wage.

The minimum wage is used as the minimum tariff for a specialist in low-paid professions. Depending on the level of complexity of the work and the qualifications required to perform the work, for other categories, the payment increases. Consequently, those employers who use the minimum wage indicator when setting the wage level will also revise the wages of other categories of workers.

To establish the size of state benefits and payments in our country, indicators such as the size of the subsistence minimum and the monthly calculation index are used. Their size is set annually taking into account the forecasted inflation rate by the Law on the Republican Budget for the corresponding financial year. According to the minister, the benefits will be increased by the rate of inflation.

“The minimum wage will increase from 42 to 60 thousand tenge. and will affect 1 million 600 thousand citizens. Among them there are also persons with disabilities. Today, out of 700 thousand persons with disabilities, 400 thousand are of working age. And 129 thousand of them are directly working, therefore, their increase will also affect,” Shapkenov said.

One of the pressing issues today for citizens of not only our country is the threat of job loss due to widespread automation and digitalization.

The intensity of the release of new technologies is constantly growing. Rapid progress not only opened up prospects for the economy, but also set new requirements for the qualifications of workers, which in turn requires retraining, mastering digital skills and new professions.

“In the near future, over 85 million jobs in the world may be squeezed out of the labor market,” noted Shapkenov.

In addition, according to the latest survey of the 8 largest economies in the world, by 2030, about 100 million workers, or about one in 16, will have to change their occupation.

The change in old or the emergence of new professions depends on what technologies will develop and what trends determine the scenarios of the future. The use of new technologies in factories is changing the way work is done. Modern machines, machine tools and equipment begin to perform part of the operations without the help of people and thereby show which production tasks and with them professions will disappear.

On the other hand, innovative technologies and mechanisms pose new labor tasks and, as a result, in the future, these changes will form new professions.

According to the minister, the ministry carried out an analysis of current professions in order to determine future trends in the labor market, specialties and skills that will become relevant or appear in the next decade, taking into account the transforming and disappearing professions.

The result of this work was the creation of the Atlas of new professions and competencies in Kazakhstan. Atlas is a tool with which you can quickly start proactive training of specialists for future market needs.

The Atlas included 239 new, 95 transforming and 129 disappearing professions in 9 priority sectors (oil and gas industry, agriculture, transport and logistics, mechanical engineering, information and communication technologies, energy, tourism, construction, mining and metallurgical industry).

Thus, the Atlas helps employees navigate in which direction the industry will develop and what skills and competencies they need to have to meet the requirements of the new economy.

The Atlas also allows educational organizations to update their curricula, taking into account the need to teach Kazakhstanis new skills and competencies that are in demand from employers and in accordance with modern realities.

“In addition, the ministry is taking a number of other measures. For example, online training is organized on the Enbek platform. Plus, there is training for workers in the workplace. We will retrain people in accordance with the new realities,” Shapkenov informed.

The minister also answered in detail the question about the development of a draft Social Code on behalf of the Head of State in order to eradicate paternalistic sentiments and social dependency in Kazakhstan. According to the minister, at present, the Concept of the Social Code has been developed, based on three basic principles, which the Head of State spoke about. It will reflect all the difficulties that a person may experience from the moment of birth.

First, it will combine all 16 laws of the social sphere.

Second, the main principles — targeting and need — will be respected.

Third, the principle of solidarity and responsibility of the state and citizens will be laid down.

The social protection system is an element of improving the quality of life of certain categories of citizens: pensioners, persons with disabilities and people with limited mobility, families with children, including large families and others. It is aimed at improving the quality of life and the level of material well-being of these categories of the population through targeted provision of social assistance and support, ensuring the availability of social services.

As you know, in order to provide social assistance specifically to citizens in need, from Jan. 1, 2020, the mechanism for providing targeted social assistance was revised. So, in case of unjustified refusal of an able-bodied family member from the presented work, the whole family is immediately deprived of the right to receive TSA. Also, in order to obtain reliable and complete information about the recipients of social assistance, 24 information systems of various state bodies have been integrated. Work is underway to create a digital family card, an electronic social wallet.

Thus, today measures are already being taken to reduce the dependent attitude on the part of recipients of social assistance.

At the same time, on behalf of the Head of State, as part of the development of the Social Code, other measures will be considered for making a comprehensive decision on reformatting public attitudes towards social policy.

According to the ministry, the Social Code will systematize the entire range of social protection and support measures provided at different stages of life, depending on the life situation.

The concept of the Social Code has already been prepared, which contains the main approaches aimed at qualitatively improving the social security system, namely:

  • strengthening measures to ensure social rights and guarantees (increasing the legal literacy of citizens; developing the institution of social support for families in need; introducing an index of social well-being of the population);
  • modernization of social support for citizens (ensuring social benefits at the level of no less than international minimum social security standards; introducing per capita financing of social services);
  • introduction of an integrated model for the provision of social standards (implementation of the Digital Social Card; taking preventive measures in the areas of the social sphere);
  • transformation and reengineering of public services (transition from declarative to proactive provision of services; correspondence examination, automation of the processes of providing targeted social assistance);
  • reforming social institutions (creating a state social fund on the basis of a state social insurance fund with the transfer of functions to assign pensions and benefits; consolidating financial flows of the social sphere (RB and extra-budgetary funds).

In the long term, the adoption of the Social Code will allow: to create a single source of knowledge of citizens about their social rights and obligations, to take preventive measures to ensure social rights and guarantees, to increase the social protection of citizens.

After the introduction of the allowance to families with many children, who, regardless of income, began to receive 4 MCI for each child, society began to say that the same assistance should be provided to all mothers, regardless of the number of children, because they are the same as those with many children bear the costs of their development and education.

When asked if there is a likelihood of introducing such a child benefit, the minister replied that today Kazakhstan has built a comprehensive model to support families with children, to protect motherhood and childhood, which includes a system of state benefits, social benefits, measures to promote employment, tax benefits. and other measures of social protection at all stages of citizens' life.

The country has an integral system of social support for families with children, including families that are not large (with one, two, three children), which includes a social payment for pregnancy and childbirth (about 40% of the average monthly wage), an allowance for the birth of a child (for the birth of the first, second, third child — 105,564 tenge, for the fourth or more child — 175,014 tenge), for caring for a child until one year of age (from 16,002 to 24,725 tenge), for parents engaged in caring for a disabled child (45,736 tenge), which are paid without taking into account family income.

In addition, there is a subsidy of compulsory pension contributions for women who take care of a child up to one year of age, in the amount of 10% of the average monthly income.

As for the introduction of benefits for mothers of large families of 4 or more children, which was carried out last year, this was done to achieve two goals: to stimulate demographic growth and increase income for large families. As a result, if in 2019 there were 252 large families, then in 2020 there were 428 of them.

“The introduction of such support for other categories of families is not being considered,” Shapkenov said.

Regarding the new allowance for caring for disabled people of group 1, the Minister informed that on Sep. 23, the Senate adopted and sent for signature to the Head of State the law "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Social Protection of Certain Categories of Citizens".

The law comes into force from the date of its signing and comes into force upon the expiration of ten calendar days after its first official publication.

At the same time, by-laws were developed, including legal acts on the introduction of an allowance for a person caring for a disabled person of the 1st group in the amount of 48,023 tenge. Thus, from the moment the law enters into force, this benefit will cover citizens caring for persons with disabilities of group 1 both from childhood and for those who have received a disability during their life.

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