The indisputable right of employees is the right to freedom of association, the right to unite in trade unions to protect the interests of labor collectives. As a socially responsible company, we fully support this right and create a favorable environment for the development of this institutional structure. GRI 407-1
Trade unions are a good example of a platform for dialogue, which is confirmed by international experience. By the end of 2022, collective agreements have been signed in 38 of our portfolio companies
(in 2021 – 37). GRI 2-24, GRI 407-1, GRI 2-30
The Center for Social Interaction and Communications (hereinafter referred to as CSIC) is a platform for regulating social and labor relations and developing social partnership in the Fund’s Group of Companies. To coordinate the interaction of the Fund’s divisions and portfolio companies in case of crisis situations and organizations of anti-crisis measures, the Operational Headquarters of the Fund has been operating since 2021. During the reporting period, 7 meetings of the Operational Headquarters were held.
We monitor the moral and psychological climate in labor collectives. Work is underway to improve working conditions, prevent labor disputes, etc. There is a Social Stability Monitoring Center at the CSIC, which collects and analyzes operational data on the prerequisites or facts of social tension in labor collectives via 4 communication channels (e-mail, phone, Whatsapp messenger, website) 24/7. In 2022, more than 23 thousand appeals were received through the hotline of its call center Nysana, including on issues of social and labor relations (relevant) – 1 037. 86 strikes have been registered, 78 of which are in the Mangystau region, including 30 strikes by contractors in the oil and gas sector.
An interactive Map of social stability has been introduced, through which the situation at the enterprises of the Fund’s Group of Companies is monitored in real time (there are 12 portfolio companies in the perimeter, more than 230 thousand people).
Since 2013, the Fund’s Group of Companies has been conducting a study of the level of social stability of Samruk Research Services, which allows diagnosing problem areas in the social and labor relations of production collectives throughout Kazakhstan and taking timely preventive measures. It covers almost all employees of companies.
The level of social stability in the Fund’s Group of Companies by the end of 2022 is satisfactory – the overall SRS indicator was 70 %, having decreased by 3 % compared to 2021 (coverage of more than 97 thousand respondents). The study was conducted via SMS mailing (online survey) and telephone survey.
For more than five years, the comprehensive educational project Corporate School of Trade Union Activists of the Fund has been nurturing professional trade union workers of a new formation. The training program pays special attention to such methods as conflict management, mediation, psychology of effective communication, formation of a collective agreement. Much attention is paid to the step-by-step algorithm for creating a trade union and forming a collective agreement. At the Activist School, students are taught to prevent disputes from arising, not to deal with their consequences. The School’s program includes training in skills that are in demand today, such as labor law, collective bargaining and trade union organization. GRI 407-1
In March 2022, we launched the project “Pool of mediators”. 102 employees from various portfolio companies of the Fund Group were trained in the cities of Astana and Almaty. The purpose of this project is to have a certified mediator in each company of the Fund Group for timely detection and resolution of conflicts. From 2018 to 2021, the Center for Social and Labor Relations trained more than 300 trade union employees of the Fund Group companies throughout Kazakhstan. The training of 80 more trade union leaders was completed on August 19, 2022. GRI 407-1, GRI 2-24
Another direction is the introduction of IR (industrial relations) methods in the Fund’s Group of Companies, which will improve social and living conditions at work. In 2022, a Corporate standard was approved to ensure unified approaches and centralized regulation of IR development in the Fund’s Group of Companies, training was also conducted in the field of sanitary and epidemiological monitoring of social and living conditions, development of internal communications, feedback culture and prevention of pressure in the workplace, as well as on the history and relationship of IR with the ESG agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.
Thanks to the measures taken, emerging labor disputes are resolved within the legal framework using mediation methods, involving local trade union organizations of the Fund’s Group of Companies and through an appeal to the judicial authorities.