Human Rights Watch announced that repressive laws and abusive practices by the government and some oil companies violate the labor rights of thousands of workers employed in Kazakhstan’s booming petroleum sector.
Violent clashes in western Kazakhstan in 2011 following an extended strike by oil workers highlight a wider problem of disregard for workers’ rights and other human rights that should concern Kazakhstan’s trade and investment partners.
The 153 page report, Striking Oil, Striking Workers: Violations of Labor Rights in Kazakhstan’s Oil Sector analyzes the tactics employed by Kazakh authorities and three companies operating in the oil and gas sector in western Kazakhstan to restrict workers’ rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression leading up to and during peaceful labor strikes that began in May 2011. Local authorities broke the strike at one of the companies in June. Workers at the other two continued peaceful strikes until December 16th 2011 when clashes erupted between police and others including striking oil workers in Zhanaozen, a town in remote western Kazakhstan. Police shot 12 people dead in the clashes.
Mr Mihra Rittmann Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report said that “Oil is fueling Kazakhstan’s growing economy, but the government and companies ignore the basic rights of workers who do the difficult and often dangerous work of bringing Kazakhstan’s oil to market. Workers’ rights are being trampled and they have nowhere to turn to resolve labor disputes.”
Human Rights Watch said that the developments have serious implications for foreign businesses and governments seeking to make investments in Kazakhstan. The European Union, which is seeking to upgrade relations with Kazakhstan, and a number of its member states that are heavily invested there, should be especially concerned and set benchmarks for human rights improvement.
The three companies named in the report are: KarazhanbasMunai JSC, a JV between Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company, KazMunaiGas Exploration and Production and China’s state owned CITIC group; Ersai Caspian Contractor LLC, an oil service company that is a partially owned subsidiary of Italy’s Saipem SpA, part of the Eni group and OzenMunaiGas, a fully owned subsidiary of KMG EP.
The report is based on research during two field missions to western Kazakhstan in August and October 2011 and draws on 64 interviews with oil workers, including union activists, at the three companies and other experts. Human Rights Watch also contacted the companies. In response to letters sent by Human Rights Watch describing the findings and requesting each company’s response, Ersai Caspian Contractor and OzenMunaiGas each maintained that the companies had acted in accordance with national laws. KarazhanbasMunai JSC did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s letter.
In interviews with Human Rights Watch, workers at all three of the companies described human rights violations in the months leading up to and during the May 2011 strikes. The companies interfered in workers’ efforts to bargain collectively and carried out mass dismissals of workers following peaceful strikes, the workers said. The authorities tried to break peaceful strikes in one instance using force and imprisoned union leaders on politically motivated charges, not adhering to fair trial standards. Burdensome collective bargaining requirements and a broad prohibition on strikes that applies to workers in the oil sector under Kazakh law also obstruct exercise of workers’ rights, Human Rights Watch found.
One former Ersai Caspian Contractor worker described to Human Rights Watch how it felt to be a member of an independent union. As for our union, the company completely ignored us. The company didn’t want a union that would open people’s eyes that would provide legal consultation that workers could appeal to defend their rights. It’s easier for them when the workers don’t know anything, and just work silently.
Workers at all three companies repeatedly attempted to negotiate with company management to resolve wage and other contractual disputes but were met with indifference or outright harassment. For example, workers said that KarazhanbasMunai and Ersai Caspian Contractor denied union leaders access to company grounds to speak to workers and hold union meetings. Officials at Ersai Caspian Contractor harassed and threatened workers for participating in a legitimate union meeting by interrogating them in some cases joined by the police.
With their months long efforts to resolve their disputes through negotiation thwarted, employees at these three companies in May 2011 began hunger and labor strikes, involving up to several thousand people at a time.
Human Rights Watch said that the right to strike is one of the principal ways workers and unions may promote and defend their interests. Yet, authorities interfered with the peaceful strikes, including by sentencing union leaders to up to 10 days of administrative detention. The authorities also brought criminal charges against an OzenMunaiGas oil worker and Ms Natalia Sokolova a union lawyer at KarazhanbasMunai, who in August 2011 was sentenced to six years in prison for speaking to oil workers about wage disparities.
In all, more than 2,000 workers were dismissed from the three companies during the strikes. The International Labor Organization has said that retaliatory dismissals constitute illegal discrimination in employment.
Mr Rittmann said that “The oil workers have faced serious violations of their rights by both their employers and the government of Kazakhstan. It’s shocking that workers should have to endure mass firings and being thrown in prison in retaliation for participating in a peaceful strike.”
Source - Human Rights Watch
(www.steelguru.com)
