News

Kazakhstan is in the top 10 worst countries for workers’ rights

The latest ranking of workers’ rights includes the global top ten, of which no country in 2017 should want to be a part.

Kazakhstan: a showcase for shrinking civic space

The Nazarbayev regime is using informal and formal methods to squeeze out NGOs, independent media and trade unions. Western governments should pay attention.

Kazakhstan: Union Leader Gets 2-Year Jail Sentence

A labour union leader in Kazakhstan who helped mobilize oil workers into defending their right to independent union representation has been sentenced to two years in jail on charges including embezzlement

Kazakhstan Jails Union Leader For Two Years

A court in Kazakhstan has sentenced labor union leader Amin Eleusinov to two years in prison. The court handed down the sentence on May 16 after convicting Eleusinov, a union leader at the Oil Construction Company (OCC), of embezzlement and of publicly insulting, assaulting, and refusing to obey a representative of state authority. Eleusinov was arrested in January after hundreds of OCC workers went on hunger strike for two weeks to protest the closure of a trade union alliance. (RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)

Investors who profit as oil workers face repression

The companies that this month helped to jail trade union leader Nurbek Kushakbayev are linked, via Kazmunaigaz, Kazakhstan’s state-controlled oil and gas firm, to Chinese and international capital.

Free Nurbek Kushakbayev! Support independent workers’ organisation in Kazakhstan!

Trades unionists have launched an international campaign for the release of Nurbek Kushakbayev, who was jailed this month for his part in organising strike action in the western Kazakhstan oil field.

Kazakhstan: Union Leader Sentenced to Prison

The ITUC has denounced the sentencing of Nurbek Kushakbayev, Deputy Chairperson of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan, to two-and-a-half years in prison in connection with calls for a strike at the Oil Construction Company.

The Astana City Court No. 2 of Almaty District added a €75,000 fine for “damages” to the prison term.

Kazakhstan: Repression of Independent Trade Unions

The ITUC has written to the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to demand the release of imprisoned trade unionists and an end to repression of the ITUC-affiliated Confederation of Independent Trade Union of Kazakhstan KNPRK and its affiliates.

Kazakhstan: state threat to shut down independent trade unions

Kazakhstan’s main independent trade union confederation is fighting for its life, as a court reviews a “justice” ministry bid to have it shut down.

The legal onslaught on union organisation comes after a four-year drive against opposition political parties and independent media. Nevertheless the workers’ movement is not beaten: strikes, even where organised outside the law, are forcing employers and state authorities alike to back off.