The Government of Kazakhstan to count self-employed citizens

At the last summer meeting of the Government of Kazakhstan, self-employed citizens were one of the key issues. Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Madina Abylkasymova reported to the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev about the implementation of the Roadmap for formalizing and involving the informally employed population in the economy of the country. In total since the beginning of 2018, the status of 1,385 million Kazakhstan citizens was actualized. Before that, 2.7 million people did not have status in government databases. Now 548,4 thousand workers have concluded labor contracts. In addition, 9.3 thousand domestic workers and 13 thousand entrepreneurs are officially registered.

Another 84 thousand people were registered as recipients of social payments, 19 thousand as recipients of targeted social assistance, 29 thousand were registered for pregnancy. In addition, the status of housewives, students, adult schoolchildren and others was updated.

According to the "road map", informal workers are involved in the economy of the country. For example, 92,7 thousand people were involved in the productive employment program. 62 thousand people are employed in permanent jobs and another 12 thousand are for training courses, 8 thousand for social workplaces, the rest for youth practice and community service.

New measures

Since the beginning of the year, new measures have been taken to update the status of citizens. In each region, "hot lines" have been created, where citizens can report that they were forced to receive salaries in envelopes and not to transfer mandatory pension contributions.

In total, there are four main categories of citizens without actual statuses. These are hired workers, self-employed, workers of personal farms and unregistered unemployed.

There is special "Conclude an employment contract" to reach employees. According to results, more than 7,5 thousand employers have concluded more than 30 thousand employment contracts with their employees.

Self-employed measures have been developed to promote employment. The number of self-employed on personal subsidiary plots is determined by districts. Systemic measures on formalization and employment in several areas of the state program for the development of the agro-industrial complex (micro crediting, legalization, development of agricultural cooperation) were developed. The unemployed have developed detailed plans for local executive bodies to register and provide employment assistance measures.

There are also legislative measures to register and formalize self-employed workers. The draft law "On amendments and additions to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the formalization of employment of the population" was drafted and submitted to the Government.

Within the framework of the bill, it is proposed:

• Introduction of a single cumulative payment;

• The introduction of a single definition of "employed person" and "independent worker", as well as categories of people who belongs to the employed population;

• The introduction of single categories of taxpayers in the laws on social insurance, compulsory social health insurance and pensions.

Actualization of citizens occurs not only through detours of houses of citizens, but also through electronic channels. Now, citizens are registered automatically when they visit the e-government portal, the Kazakhtelecom portal, or through the single contact center egov.kz. After servicing the citizen, the information automatically enters the information system to account for the status of citizens. In addition, the issue is being worked out with second-tier banks and mobile telecoms operators to update the status when citizens use their services.

Now most of the systems of different state bodies and companies are already integrated. According to the plan, the integration will be completed by the end of 2018. Minister Madina Abylkasymova reported that all the necessary preparatory work is being carried out in a planned manner.

After her speech the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev instructed to continue work on involving the informally employed population in the economy of the country.

"In general, work on updating the status of citizens and involving unemployed and unproductively self-employed people is being carried out, and this work needs to be continued and modernized." Our main task is to involve every citizen", - said Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

In addition, the prime minister also instructed the akimats to step up work in this direction. Sagintayev noted that the presented new format for updating information on citizens through digitalization is correct. In this regard, the Ministry of labor and social protection of population, together with the Ministry of information and communications, were instructed to continue work on the introduction of new digitalization channels.

Why formalization is needed?

According to the Ministry of labor, informal work is not only characteristic of the self-employed, but also of other groups of the employed population. First of all, this applies to employees who work without a formal employment contract or a civil law contract.

As the Minister of labor Madina Abylkasymova noted at the press conference, one of the main tasks of the "road map" about the formalization of the population is to make the status of the population in the state databases relevant. An important part of the road map is the informal population. In addition to updating the status, one more purpose is - to involve citizens in employment measures or register their activities officially.

According to the minister, work without signing an employment contract or without registration breaks the social and labor rights of citizens.

"According to the labor code, the business code, tax legislation, if you work as a wage worker, you need to sign a labor contract. The employment contract protects. Referring to the labor code, all labor rights of the citizen will be protected. This also applies to salaries, giving vacation, additional guarantees", - said Abylkasymova.

Besides, pension and social deductions for the worker are paid. Therefore, neither the worker's labor nor social rights are protected without an employment contract. He can be fired at any time, and no deductions are made for him: neither on the part of the employer, nor on the income of the employee himself.

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