Labor & Employment

AEQUITAS’s labor & employment practice is one of the best in Kazakhstan. In 2015, AEQUITAS was affiliated by Ius Laboris, a global Alliance of leading employment, labor and pension law firms.

The firm’s lawyers advise companies on their day-to-day matters and help resolve most complex non-standard issues not regulated by the Kazakh labor legislation.

AEQUITAS provides labor law services to clients in different sectors of economy: energy and mining, transportation and pharmaceuticals, retail and production. The firm’s lawyers are perfectly knowledgeable about the legislative specifics of relations with different categories of employees in particular industries. On most intricate issues involving foreign labor relations AEQUITAS advises Chevron Munaigas Inc., Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Mars Overseas Holdings, Inc., and others.

AEQUITAS possesses sound experience in labor disputes resolution.

In 2015, the firm’s lawyers submitted a large package of substantiated proposals to amend the labor legislation for consideration to the governmental working group drafting the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

AEQUITAS lawyers regularly publish analytical articles in local and foreign periodicals. AEQUITAS has been a World Bank’s respondent to prepare labor regulation overviews for the Doing Business annual report since 2005. Over the past several years, AEQUITAS lawyers have been authoring Kazakhstan labor law newsletters for ABA International Employment Law Committee.

Yulia Chumachenko, AEQUITAS partner supervising the labor law practice is among Kazakhstan’s best lawyers specializing in labor law according to the Who’s Who Legal and Legal 500 international rating publications.

Legal services

Drafting of Labor Documentation

• Drafting of HR documentation and employer’s acts intended to mitigate the potential risks of administrative liability imposable on companies and corporate officers.
• Drafting of employment agreements (both model and custom-tailored), to ensure the maximum protection of employer when hiring different categories of employees, including executive officers, and drafting of job descriptions.
• Adaptation of global corporate employment agreements, employer’s acts and employment policies to meet the requirements of local legislation and the law-application practice.
• Development of long-term incentive programs for top management and other categories of employees; introduction of international incentive systems (including corporate pension plans) and employee share plans (including global phantom stock program plan and extraordinary profit sharing plan) subject to local legislation requirements; advice on the development, execution and implementation of motivation schemes and employee incentive programs; assessment of legal and tax aspects of program introduction; development of a full package of necessary documentation; assistance in the internal harmonization of staff incentive programs; employer representation in negotiations with employees.
• Drafting of agreements between employers and employees’ representatives on establishing grievance committee and other documents pertaining to the process of establishment and functioning of a permanent body resolving individual labor disputes.

Labor Law Advice

• Preparation of legal opinions and drafting of documents on matters involving disciplinary liability of employees.
• Advice regarding formalization and termination of labor relations and quest for and development of optimal solutions the least risky for employers.
• Advice on occupational safety and labor protection issues, including settlement of on-the-job accidents; advice regarding work place attestation according to labor conditions; drafting of relevant employer’s acts.
• Advice regarding Kazakhstani citizens’ employment abroad, including under secondment to foreign companies.
• Advice on personal data protection matters, drafting of consents to personal data processing and their cross-border transfer; check of corporate documentation as to its compliance with personal data protection legislation.
• Advice regarding workplace quotas for disabled persons, young specialists, foreign labor and other categories of employees.
• Advice on foreign citizens labor activities in Kazakhstan, including tax aspects; document issuance procedures for foreign labor engagement.
• Development and legal support of the procedures for staff reduction and mass employee displacement.
• Legal support in changing labor conditions and work time regime, including in connection with changes in the company’s process or organizational conditions.
• Labor Audit; Preparation to Labor Inspections
• All-round HR and migration due diligence of companies and development of recommendations to eliminate risks.
• Analysis of legal and tax risks pertinent to personnel costs optimization.
• Assistance in the preparation for, and how to behave during, inspections.

Labor Dispute Resolution

• Representation of interests in labor disputes resolution, including in courts.
• Representation of interests in the course of administrative proceedings during labor and migration authority inspections.