The Draft Law on Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Labour Issues has been drawn up and is being reviewed by the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan1.

Provisions of the Draft Law will, inter alia, govern the implementation of electronic employment agreements and the unified record system for employment agreements ("e-Hr System"). It is expected that the Draft Law will become effective by the middle of 2020.

Electronic Employment Agreements

According to the Draft Law, employer and employee will be able to sign employment agreements as an electronic document using digital signatures ("electronic employment agreements"). The use of paper-based employment agreements will continue to be possible. According to the Ministry of Labour2, the introduction of electronic agreements will create conditions for abandoning paper employment agreements and other paper documents (including work record books), thereby accelerating the transition to electronic document flows. 

Similar changes will apply to employers' acts. It is planned that employers will be able to issue their internal acts both in paper format as now, and as electronic documents using digital signatures. 

The unified record system for employment agreements

In July 2018, the Ministry of Labour launched a pilot project to introduce a unified record system for employment agreements ("e-Hr System") in order to automate HR recordkeeping and eliminate/reduce the volume of paper documents during hiring and throughout the employment relationship. 

Now any employer has the opportunity to take part in the project by entering into the e-Hr System its data: (i) on signed and terminated employment agreements as well as any amendments thereto (details of the parties, the position, the workplace, the term of the agreement, the commencement date, the date and reference number of the employment agreement); (ii) on employment records of the employees; (iii) on the company's staff size. So far this participation is exclusively voluntary. The e-Hr System was based on the experience of Estonia and Azerbaijan, where a system of registration of electronic employment agreements have already been introduced.

If the Draft Law is adopted, employers will be obliged to enter this data to the e-Hr System in the manner to be specified by the competent governmental authority regulating labour relations. 

The Draft Law developers suggest that the introduction of the unified record system for employment agreements will facilitate the process of employment for both employees and employers due to the optimization of HR records management. Employees' records will be created automatically in the database of the governmental authorities. Employers will be able to obtain reliable information on an employee's employment records and history, qualifications, etc. In turn, employees will also be able to obtain information on his/her employment from the database. The government will be able to forecast redundancies and take action in order to provide jobs for redundant employees.

According to the employees of the Center for the Development of Human Resources JSC (developers of the e-Hr System), the system will maintain the privacy of personal data. The employer will be able to access the personal information of the applicant only after obtaining the consent of the latter. In particular, it is assumed that the employer, in order to obtain certain information about the employee, will send an electronic request to the e-Hr System. In turn, the e-Hr System, by sending an SMS message to the applicant will (i) inform him that a request has been received from the employer regarding his personal data; and (ii) will ask for electronic consent to provide such information. Only after obtaining such consent from the applicant will the e-Hr System (in the absence of the necessary information in this system) send electronic requests to the relevant state bodies with a request to provide the required information. After receiving responses from the government authorities, the e-Hr System will summarize all available and received information and send it to the employer.

Footnotes

1. The Draft Law "On Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Labour Issues" ("Draft Law").

2. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Ministry of Labour").

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