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Last updated on: December 28th, 2023

Labor Requirements

The Kazakhstan Labor Code, 2015 regulates the labor relations between the employer and the employee. The Labor Code, 2015 governs the terms and conditions of employment such as working hours, holidays and rest periods, wages, overtime, employment relationships. 

Hours & Pay Regulations

Normal Working Hours

An employee’s working time in a workweek shall not exceed 40 hours. An employment contract may provide for shorter working hours with payment for normal working hours. The duration of daily work shall not exceed 8 hours.

 

A 5-day working week with two days of rest shall be established for employees. During a 5-day working week, the duration of daily work is determined by the employer, taking into account the specifics of the work and maintaining the established length of the working week (40 hours).

 

Staggered Work Schedule – Employers may establish staggered work schedules under which the duration of the workday varies depending on the day of the week and workload, subject to a maximum workday of 11 hours including overtime.

 

Reduced Working Hours – Reduced working hours shall not exceed 36 hours per week for employees engaged in heavy work, or work with harmful and/or hazardous working conditions.

 

Employees with a temporary or permanent disability shall be provided with reduced working hours not exceeding 36 hours per week.

 

Part-Time Work – Part-time work may be established by a written agreement between the employee and the employer. The term part-time work basically means working hours which are less than the normal duration of work hours. This shall include the reduction of the daily work (work shift); the reduction of working days in a workweek, or simultaneous reduction of the daily work (work shift), and the reduction of the number of working days in a working week.

 

Shift Work – Shift work may be established in cases where the duration of the production process exceeds the permitted duration of daily work. The duration of a shift during shift work & the transition from one shift to another is determined by a shift schedule. The employer shall notify the employees of the shift schedules at least 10 calendar days prior to the entry into force of these schedules. It is prohibited to engage an employee for 2 consecutive shifts.

 

A shift is a work period that includes the time of work at the facility and the time of rest between shifts. The duration of the shift shall not exceed fifteen calendar days.

 

Working hours and rest periods within the reporting period are given under the work schedule on duty (shift schedule). The reporting period shall include working hours, rest periods, travel time from the employer’s location or meeting place to and from the place of work, as well as other periods corresponding to this calendar part of the time. 

 

Travel Time

Travel time from the employer’s location or assembly point to and from the place of work is not included in working hours.

 

Flexible Working Hours

Flexible working hours may be established for employees, including remote employees. The period within which the average length of working time for this category of employees must be maintained is called the accounting period. The accounting period for flexible working hours shall not exceed 6 months.

 

The duration of daily work (work shift) and (or) weekly working time in the flexible working time regime may be more or less than the normal daily and (or) weekly working time. The “normal” workweek of up to 40 hours may be distributed over four days (up to 10 hours each day), when mutually agreed upon by the employer and employee, with the possibility to alternate with a five-day or a six-day workweek.

 

Summary calculation of working hours

Aggregate calculation of working time is used in continuous productions, shops, sites, and in some types of work where the daily or weekly duration of working time established by production (work) conditions is not observed.

 

The period within which the average daily and (or) weekly working hours established for this category of employees must be complied with on average is recognized as the reporting period in the aggregate calculation of working time.

 

Any calendar period, but not more than one year, or the period of performance of a particular work may be the accounting period in the summary calculation of working time.

 

When establishing the summary calculation of working time, it is obligatory to observe the duration of the employee’s leave between the end of work and the beginning of the next working day (work shift). Labor Code, 2015 art. 68 – 75, 135.

 

Recording Requirement
The employer is obliged to keep records of the actual working hours of the employee. The duration of hours worked and hours, where work is not performed by the employee, must be recorded. In such cases, overtime, night work, work on weekends, holidays, and business days are taken into account separately.

 

The employer is obliged to keep records of the working hours and rest time of each employee working on a rotating basis.

 

In cases when the employee’s working hours include periods when work is performed outside the workplace or their performance cannot be recorded by the employer in real-time, in such a situation, the period of work performed is established as the work duration specified in the employment contract under the working hour records. Labor Code,2015  art. 79, 135.

Overtime

Employers can require employees to perform overtime work only in situations of absolute necessity or emergency. Any work performed beyond the regular working hours (8 hours per day and 40 hours weekly) shall be considered overtime.

 

Maximum hours of overtime work

Employees overtime work hours shall not exceed 2 hours per day, and 1 hour for employees engaged in heavy work. The maximum overtime hours shall not exceed 12 hours per month and 120 hours per year.

 

The restriction on the maximum number of overtime hours shall not apply in cases of emergencies, for prevention of natural disasters or to provide urgent care to citizens.

 

Overtime Pay

Overtime work is paid in an increased amount in accordance with the requirements of the employment or collective bargaining agreement, but not less than 1.5 times the employee’s daily (hourly) rate. In case of a lump-sum payment, overtime pay shall be paid in the amount not less than 50% of the established daily (hourly) rate of the employee. A lump-sum payment is when an employee is not paid monthly but is paid a cumulative amount.

 

Compensatory time off – Employees shall be entitled to compensatory rest for overtime work of 1-hour rest for 1 hour of overtime, in lieu of overtime premium by agreement between the employer and the employee. Labor Code 2015 arts.77, 78 & 108.

Night Work

The night work is the work performed between 10 pm to 6 am.  

 

Pay for Night Work – Every hour of night work is paid an increased amount as per the terms of the collective agreement but not lower than 1.5 times the daily (hourly) rate of the employee.

 

When night work falls on a holiday or weekend, remuneration shall be paid separately for night hours (1.5 times the daily hourly rate) and for hours of holidays or weekends (1.5 times the daily hourly rate).

Breaks

The employee must be given an unpaid break of at least 30 minutes for rest and meals during the daily work (work shift). Break time for rest and meals is not included in working hours. The timing of breaks for rest and meals shall be determined by collective agreements or other labor regulations. 

 

When the duration of the work shift exceeds eight hours, the break for rest and meals shall be set to at least 1 hour.

 

If due to work requirements the employee is unable to take breaks, the employer shall provide the employee with a reasonable opportunity for rest and meal in a determined place at work during the working hours. The kind of work requirement, the duration of the break, and the place shall be determined by collective agreement. 

 

Intra Shift and Special Breaks

In the case of certain types of work, employees are provided with inter-shift breaks which are included in the working hours of the employee. The duration as well the procedure to provide such breaks are established in the collective agreement or by the employer unless otherwise provided by the labor legislation.

 

In cold or hot seasons of the year, when the employees are working outdoors in unheated indoor areas or employed in loading and unloading operations are provided with special breaks which are added to the working time for cooling, heating up, or rest. Labor Code, 2015, art 81, 82.

 

Daily Rest 
Employees are entitled to minimum daily rest periods of 12 consecutive hours between the end of a shift and the beginning of the next shift.  Labor Code 2015, arts. 83.

 

Weekly Rest Period

In a 5-day working week, employees shall be entitled to 2 days off per week, and in a 6-day working week, employees shall be entitled to 1 day off.  The normal day off shall be Sunday for a 4-day, 5-day, or 6-day workweek. The second day off (with a five-day workweek) or second and third days off (with a four-day workweek) shall be established by employment policies or CBAs.

 

Employees working in continuous productions or in productions where it is impossible to stop work on weekends due to production and technical conditions or due to the need for continuous service, as well as employees working on a shift basis every weekend according to shift schedules, shall be provided with weekly rest on alternate weeks. Labor Code, 2015, arts. 84-85 & 109.

Work On Rest Days

Work on weekends and holidays is allowed with the written consent of the employee or at his request on the basis of an act of the employer.

 

Employers can require employees to work or weekends without the employee’s consent in cases of natural disasters, emergencies, industrial accidents, destruction or damage of properly; etc. 

 

Pay for Work on Weekly Rest – For work on weekly rest, at the discretion of the employee, the employee shall be entitled to another day off or paid 1.5 times the daily hourly rate of the employee. The Government Authorities have the right to change the days off to other working days. Labor Code, 2015, arts. 84-85 & 109.

Public Holidays

Employees are entitled to the following 13 paid public holidays in Kazakhstan:

      •  New Year’s Day – Jan. 1st  & 2nd
      •  Orthodox Christmas
      •  International Women’s Day – March 8
      •  Nauryz holiday
      •  Kazakhstan’s People Solidarity Holiday
      •  Defender’s Day
      •  Victory Day
      • Capital Day
      • Kurban Ait: August 11;
      • Constitution Day of the RK
      • First President’s Day
      • Kazakhstan Independence Day

In the event that a national holiday falls on a weekend (Saturday or Sunday), the days off shall be extended by one day. If Orthodox Christmas and Qurban Ait fall on a weekend, the holiday is not extended to another day.

 

For the rational use of working time during holidays, as well as on weekends the Government Authorities have the right to change the days off to other working days.

 

Pay for Work on Public Holiday

For work on a public holiday, at the discretion of the employee, the employee shall be entitled to another day off or paid 1.5 times the daily hourly rate of the employee. Labor Code 2015 arts. 85, 109.

Annual Leave

Employees are entitled to the following types of annual leave – 

    • Annual basic paid leave
    • Additional annual paid leave

Basic annual paid leave – Employees are entitled to at least 24 calendar days of basic paid leave each calendar year, unless otherwise provided by a collective labor agreement, other regulatory legislation, etc. 

 

Additional annual paid leave – An additional paid annual leave of at least 6 calendar days shall be given to –  employees engaged in heavy work, work under harmful or hazardous working conditions, and category for disabled employees. For other categories of employees, provision of additional annual paid leave and its minimum duration may be established by the Government Authorities.

 

Employment contracts or collective labor agreements may provide additional annual leave as an incentive to employees for continuous long-term service or for performing complex, operational work as well as work of other nature.

 

An employee shall be granted annual paid leave for the first and subsequent years of employment at any time during the working year by agreement of the parties. The working year is 12 calendar months, calculated from the first working day of the employee.

 

Annual leave in parts – Annual leave may be divided into parts via an agreement between the employer and employee, however, one of the parts of the annual leave must be of at least 14 calendar days. Employees working under employment contracts as part-time employees shall be entitled to annual paid leave at the same time as their regular employment. If the duration of the annual paid leave under a part-time employment contract is less than the duration of the main leave, the employer shall, at the request of the part-time employee, grant him unpaid leave for the days that make up the difference in the leave. 

 

Calculation of the duration of annual paid leave

The annual paid leave duration shall be calculated in calendar days and it shall be regardless of any holidays corresponding to the days of leave, without any regard to the work regimes or shift schedules. Additional annual paid leave shall be included in the main (basic) annual paid leave when calculating the total duration of annual paid leave.

 

Calculation of the length of the service when granting annual paid leave

For the purpose of computing annual leave, the actual time worked by the employee, the time during which the employee did not actually work but employee’s job was maintained with salary, a time during which the employee did not work due to incapacity for work, including time off for pregnancy and childbirth, time actually not worked by the employee before the re-employment is considered as a period of employment.

 

Timing of annual leave 

Annual leave shall be granted in accordance with the leave schedule approved annually by the employer, taking into consideration the views of the employee, or established outside the leave schedule by agreement between the employer and employee.

 

Conditions and Procedure for replacement of annual paid leave

Annual paid leave is which is granted when the employee is temporarily incapacitated for work and also during maternity leave shall be substituted in whole or in part to other days. Substituted leave may be added to the leave of the next working year by agreement of the parties or maybe granted separately in the current working year at the request of the employee.

 

Employers are prohibited from not providing unused annual leave or part of the leave for 2 consecutive years. The employer may interrupt the annual paid leave in case of production needs only with the written consent of the employee.

 

The unused part of the annual paid leave in connection with the recall shall be granted by agreement of the parties during the current working year or at any time in the next working year or included in the annual paid leave for the next working year.

 

When an employee is recalled from annual paid leave, instead of giving the unused part of the leave at another time, compensation can be paid to the employee for the days of the unused part of the annual paid leave by agreement between the employee and the employer.

 

Timing of payment for annual leave – Payment for annual leave shall be made no later than 3 working days prior to its commencement, and in the case of granting leave outside the leave schedule, no later than 3 working days from the date of its granting.

 

Termination of Employment – In case of subsequent termination, annual paid leave shall be granted to the employee (whether it is complete or partial termination from the terms of the contract). The last day of the leave shall be considered the date of termination of the employment contract.

 

Upon termination of the employment contract, an employee who did not use or did not fully use the annual paid leave shall be compensated for the unused days of the annual paid leave. The compensation for unused annual paid leave is calculated based on the average salary of the employee. Labor Code,2015 art 88-96. 

Special Leave

Maternity Leave

Pregnant women, women who have given birth to a child (children), women (men) who have adopted a newborn child (children) are entitled to maternity leave – 

      • Maternity Leave
      • Leave for employees who have adopted a newborn child (children).
      • Unpaid Leave in connection with the care of a child under the age of 3.

Duration of Maternity Leave:

An employee shall be entitled to 70 calendar days before delivery and 56 calendar days after delivery in case of normal delivery. For employees who have difficult delivery or the birth of two or more children, they shall be entitled to 70 calendar days before delivery and 70 calendar days after delivery.

 

Employees living in areas exposed to nuclear tests shall be entitled to 91 calendar days before delivery and 79 calendar days after delivery during normal childbirth. In case of difficult delivery or birth of two or more children ninety-three calendar days before delivery and after.

 

During the period from the 22nd to the 29th week of pregnancy and the birth of a child weighing 500 grams or more, if the child lived more than 7 days – 79 calendar days after birth.

 

Employees who give birth to a child or have a stillbirth during the period from the 22nd to the 29th week of pregnancy or the birth of a child weighing 500 hundred grams or more, who died before the 7th day of life shall be entitled to 56 calendar days after birth.

 

Employees living in areas exposed to nuclear tests from the 22nd to the 29th week of pregnancy, wherein the child weighs 500 hundred grams or more and lives more than 7 days shall be entitled to 93 calendar days after delivery. Women living in nuclear-affected areas are given 79 calendar days after delivery if they give birth during the 22nd to the 29th week of pregnancy and give birth to a stillborn baby or weigh 500 hundred grams or more and die by the 7th day of life. 

 

When a woman applies for a certificate of temporary incapacity for work during pregnancy, the leave is cumulative and is paid in full, regardless of the number of days she actually used before giving birth and the length of time she worked for the employer. When a woman applies for a certificate of temporary incapacity for work after the birth of the child, she is granted only post-birth leave for 56 calendar days. Employees shall be entitled to leave for medical registration of pregnancy of up to 12 weeks for a duration of not less than 3 working days.

 

Leave for Screening Examination – Employees shall be entitled to leave for screening examinations in the amount of not more than three working days a year.

 

Unpaid Maternity Leave for a child till the age of 3

The employer shall provide unpaid leave in connection with the care of a child under the age of 3 on the basis of a written application of the employee, which would indicate the duration, at the choice of the parents, to the child’s mother or father based on the birth certificate of the child which would prove the birth of the child. 

 

The leave shall be provided to a single parent or another relative or guardian who is actually bringing up a child left without parental care or adoptive parents of a newborn child. An employee may take full or partial childcare leave until the child reaches the age of 3.

 

Pay – The social security system in Kazakhstan with regard to maternity protection is supported by two main sources: the state budget and the mandatory social security contributions made by employers to the Public Social Insurance Fund (PSIF).

 

Maternity leave settlement for working mothers and adoption parental leave for one of the working parents is funded by the mandatory social insurance system. These funds are raised via the employer’s monthly social contributions to the PSIF. Maternity benefits from the PSIF are calculated on the basis of an average monthly income for the previous 12 calendar months during which mandatory social insurance contributions are made.

 

When calculating the amount of benefit, an average individual monthly income is multiplied by a set ratio. In the case of normal maternity leave of 126 calendar days, the set ratio is fixed at 4.2 (126/30). Maternity benefit is given only to the child’s mother because one of the documents to be provided prior to taking a leave of absence is documentation of temporary incapacity. This document may be issued to the child’s father only in the case of the mother’s demise at work or during the postnatal period.

 

In addition, a one-time birth grant for the newborn child paid out of the state budget in Kazakhstan is applicable for both working and non-working mothers. The birth grant amounts to 38 MCI for the first, second, and third child and 63 MCI for the fourth and more children. Monthly calculation index (MCI) for calculation of benefits and other social payments, as well as for the penalties, taxes, and other charges in accordance with the Republic of Kazakhstan legislation – 2 917KZT. https://egov.kz/cms/en/articles/ui_decret

 

Breastfeeding Break – For women with children under 1.5 years of age, fathers (adoptive parents) bringing up children under 1.5 years of age without a mother, the duration of work for feeding a child (children) shall be not less than 30 minutes for those who have one child, and for those who have two or more children additional breaks of at least 1 hour each. Such breaks shall be given every 3 hours.

 

At the request of the employee, breaks for feeding the child (children) are included in the breaks for rest and meals, or total breaks are given at the beginning or end of the working day (shift). Breaks for feeding the child (children) are included in working hours. During the period of such breaks, the employees are entitled to compensation in an amount equal to their average salary.

Sick Leave

Employers are responsible for the payment of employee sick benefits. Social benefits for temporary disability are paid to employees from the first day of disability until the day of restoration of work capacity or until the disability is established. Duration of leave for sickness is not provided in the law. Labor Code 2015 art 133.

Adoption Leave

Employees (one of the parents) who have adopted a newborn child (children) are granted 56 days of leave.

The payment for adoption leave follows the same procedure as in the case of the maternity leave except that when calculating social (benefits) for an adopted newborn, a ratio of 1.9 is applied which corresponds to 56 calendar days of paid leave. Labor Code 2015 art. 82, 99,100 & 133.

Unpaid Leave

Employees are given 5 days of unpaid leave, the duration of which is determined by an agreement between the employer and employee, for the purposes of registration of marriage, the birth of the child, and for the death of a close relative (parents, grandparents, child, brother, sister, adopted child or adoptive parent). Employees are also entitled to unpaid leave for other reasons as may be agreed in the employment or collective labor agreements. Labor Code 2015 art 97.

Study Leave

Employees studying at educational institutions are granted study leave to prepare for and take tests and examinations, laboratory work, preparation, and defense of diploma work (project) to undergo training programs for military-trained reserve. Payment for study leave is determined by agreements, collective labor contracts, training contracts, etc. Labor Code 2015 art.98.

Disclaimer: The material provided above is for informational purposes only and is subject to change. We endeavor to keep all material up-to-date and correct but make no representations about the information's completeness, accuracy, or reliability. Laws vary by jurisdiction and are subject to change and interpretation based on individual factors that may differ between organizations. The material is not meant to constitute legal advice and we suggest you seek the advice of legal counsel in connection with any of the information presented.