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Tajikistan - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Dushanbe

 

CLIMATE

Midlatitude continental climate; hot summers and mild winters with semiarid to polar conditions in Pamir Mountains.

 

LANGUAGES

Tajik (official), Russian widely used in government and business.

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Tajikistan’s legal system is based on civil law system. There is no judicial review of legislative acts.

 

CURRENCY

Tajikistan Somoni (TJS)

 

TAJIKISTAN - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

TAJIKISTAN - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

The U.S. Embassy to Tajikistan is temporarily collocated with the US Embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

 

U.S. Embassy at Almaty (Kazakhstan)

99/97 Furmanova Street

Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan 480091

Telephone: [7] (3272) 63-39-21

Fax: [7] (3272) 50-62-69

http://www.usembassy-kazakhstan.freenet.kz/

 

Tajikistan does not have an embassy in the US, but does have a permanent mission to the United Nations:

 

Permanent Mission of the Republic of Tajikistan to the United Nations

136 East 67th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021

Telephone: (212) 744-2196

Fax: (212) 472-7645

 

TAJIKISTAN - HOLIDAYS

 

TAJIKISTAN – LEAVE

Annual Leave: Tajikistan’s constitution provides for paid annual leave.

 

Maternity Leave: Three years maternity leave (provided by the government).

 

TAJIKISTAN - MINIMUM AGE

According to labor laws, the minimum age for the employment of children is 16 years of age, the age at which children also may leave school legally. With the concurrence of the local trade union, employment may begin at the age of 15. By law workers under the age of 18 may work no more than 6 hours a day and 36 hours per week.

 

Children as young as 7 years of age may perform household-based labor and participate in agricultural work, which is classified as family assistance.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Tajikistan – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

TAJIKISTAN - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

The minimum monthly wage is 4 Somoni (approximately $1.60). The minimum wage does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Tajikistan – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

TAJIKISTAN - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

TAJIKISTAN - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

The law provides all citizens with the right of association, including the right to form and join associations without prior authorization, to organize territorially, and to form and join federations. According to official figures, approximately 90 percent of the labor force was organized. The Federation of Trade Unions remained the dominant labor organization. The Federation consists of 19 professional trade unions and claims 1.5 million members, virtually all nonagricultural workers. The separate, independent Trade Union of Non-State Enterprises has registered unions in more than 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, totaling approximately 30,000 employees (according to 1998 figures). Many of the enterprises in which these two organizations nominally are present are not functioning because of the general economic crisis, and the membership of both has declined as a result. The Council of Ministers formally consults both organizations during the drafting of social welfare and worker rights legislation.

 

The law mandates arbitration before a union legally may call a strike. Depending on the scale of the labor disagreement, arbitration may take place at the company, sectoral, or governmental level. In the event that arbitration fails, unions have the right to strike, but both labor unions have disavowed publicly the utility of strikes in a period of deepening economic crisis and high unemployment, and have advocated compromises between management and workers. There were no official, union-sanctioned strikes, nor were there any wildcat strikes during the year.

 

The law provides citizens, but not unions, with the right to affiliate freely with international organizations, including international labor organizations. It does not prohibit unions from affiliating with international organizations; however, there are no unions with international affiliations.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

Various laws provide for the right to organize and bargain collectively. Employees, members of the trade unions, and management participate in collective bargaining at the company level. Negotiations involving an industrial sector include officials from the relevant ministry and members of the union's steering committee for that particular sector. As the economic situation worsens, it increasingly is difficult for enterprises to engage in effective collective bargaining.

 

The law prohibits antiunion discrimination, the use of sanctions to dissuade union membership, and the firing of a worker solely for union activity. Any complaints of discrimination against a labor union or labor union activist are considered first by a local labor union committee and, if necessary, raised to the level of the Supreme Court and investigated by the Ministry of Justice. The law compels an employer found guilty of firing an employee based on union activity to reinstate the employee.

 

There are no export processing zones.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The Constitution prohibits forced labor, except in cases defined in the law; however, forced labor occurred in some cases. Neither the Law on Labor Protection nor the Law on Employment, both of which predate the existing Constitution, specifically prohibits forced or compulsory labor; the Constitution supercedes national laws. Although the practice was banned, university and secondary school students regularly are compelled to participate in the cotton harvest. Residents of state or collective farms still may be required to pick cotton, although wages usually are not paid and these institutions no longer provide the services they once did. Trafficking in persons, particularly women, was a problem (see Section 6.f.).

 

The law does not specifically prohibit forced or bonded labor by children; however, trafficking in children was a problem (see Section 6.f.). In addition children traditionally participate in family agricultural or home craftsman work.

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

According to labor laws, the minimum age for the employment of children is 16 years of age, the age at which children also may leave school legally (see Section 5). With the concurrence of the local trade union, employment may begin at the age of 15. By law workers under the age of 18 may work no more than 6 hours a day and 36 hours per week. However, children as young as 7 years of age may perform household-based labor and participate in agricultural work, which is classified as family assistance. As many as one in eight school age children work instead of attending school (see Section 5). Many children under 10 years of age work in the bazaars or sell newspapers or consumables on the street. Trade unions are responsible for reporting any violations in the employment of minors. Cases not resolved between the union and the employer may be brought before the Procurator General, who may investigate and charge the manager of the enterprise with violations of the Labor Code.

 

The Government lacks the resources and ability to regulate effectively acceptable working conditions for youths and adults, and there were no governmental or judicial initiatives to strengthen or enforce child labor legislation or regulations during the year.

 

The Government does not have a comprehensive policy for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor. The Government has not signed ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.

 

The law prohibits forced or bonded labor by children; however, trafficking in girls was a problem (see Section 6.f.).

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

The President, on the advice of the Ministry of Labor and in consultation with trade unions, sets the minimum monthly wage, which officially was $1.60 (4 Somoni). The minimum wage does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. The Government has recognized this problem and has retained certain subsidies for workers and their families at the minimum wage. Although slightly improved, the economy remained extremely weak during the year, with a majority of industrial operations standing idle. As factories and enterprises either remained closed or were shut down, workers were laid off or furloughed for extended periods. Some establishments, both governmental and private, compensated their employees in kind with food commodities or with the products produced by the enterprise, which the employee can sell or barter in local private markets.

 

The legal workweek for adults (over age 18) is 40 hours. Overtime payment is mandated by law, with the first 2 hours of overtime to be paid at 1.5 times the normal rate and the rest of the overtime hours paid at double the rate. Payment of overtime is inconsistent in all sectors.

 

The Government has established occupational health and safety standards, but these fall far below accepted international norms, and the Government does not enforce them in practice. The enforcement of work standards is the responsibility of the State Technical Supervision Committee under the Council of Ministers. While new statistics were not available, it virtually is certain, given the continuing economic decline, that 1993 statistics, which reported that over one-fifth of the population worked under substandard conditions, greatly underestimates the number that worked under those conditions during the year. Workers may leave their jobs with 2 months' notice; however, given the poor employment situation, few choose to do so. The law provides that workers can remove themselves from hazardous conditions without risking loss of employment; however, due to the poor prospects for finding another job, few do so.

 

Foreign workers are protected under the labor laws.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

The Law does not prohibit specifically trafficking in persons, and it was a significant problem. There were reports that low-level government officials and border guards are tolerant of, if not involved in, trafficking of persons. Tajikistan is a country of origin, and possibly (and to a lesser extent) a country of transit for trafficked persons, primarily women. Ministry of Security figures based on records of crimes and deportations contain more than 900 cases of women prior to 2000 that may have been victims of trafficking. A report by the Tajikistan Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) issued during the year, estimated that more than 1,000 women were trafficked from the country during 2000. Victims come primarily from Khojand or Dushanbe, and most commonly are trafficked to the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, other former Soviet Union countries, Turkey, and Iran. There also may be trafficking of Afghan women through the country to these destinations.

The majority of victims are female, ethnically Tajik, single, aged 20 to 26, usually with at least one child (the children typically come under the care of extended family), and are new arrivals to Dushanbe or Khojand from a rural upbringing with little education. Ethnic minorities are overrepresented among victims, particularly those of Slavic origin.

 

There were reports of trafficking in children who are used as drug couriers, and the trafficking of children for the removal of organs also was reported.

 

TAJIKISTAN - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The legal workweek for adults (over age 18) is 40 hours. Overtime payment is mandated by law, with the first 2 hours of overtime to be paid at 1.5 times the normal rate and the rest of the overtime hours paid at double the rate.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Tajikistan – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)