October 21, 2019

What is an electronic employment contract and a unified system of accounting for E-HR employment contracts?

An electronic employment contract is an employment contract executed in electronic form and signed by means of electronic signatures.

A draft Law “On amendments and Additions to some legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on labor issues” has been posted on the Open NPAs website. The law provides for amendments and additions to the following NPA:

— Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 23, 2015;

— The Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 5, 2014 “On administrative offenses”;

— The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On military service and the status of military personnel” dated February 16, 2012 No. 561-IV SAM;

— The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On State Property” dated March 1, 2011 No. 413-IV; the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Employment of the population” dated April 6, 2016 No. 482-V SAM.

The Labor Code has been supplemented with a new article 201-1 “Information system of the social and labor sphere (EIS STS)”, which defines the state information system, as well as describes its electronic services.

Access to the information contained in the system will be provided free of charge, taking into account the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the protection of state and other legally protected secrets.

One of the purposes of the information system is the registration of electronic employment contracts. Also, through the EIS STS, citizens will be able to file a complaint to the state Labor Inspectorate about violations of their labor rights and receive answers to them.

Article 33 “Procedure for concluding, amending and supplementing an employment contract” will be supplemented with the condition that an employment contract can be concluded in the form of an electronic document using an electronic digital signature.

In accordance with the Draft, in case of its adoption, the employer becomes obliged to transmit to the information system of the Ministry of Labor information about the conclusion of an employment contract, including:

1. the date of conclusion of the employment contract and its serial number.

2. details of the parties:

— the name of the employer – legal entity and its location, number and date of state registration of the employer – legal entity, ;

— the surname, first name, patronymic of the employee, the address of his permanent place of residence and information about registration at the place of residence, name, number, date of issue of the identity document, individual identification number;

3. the specialty, profession, qualifications or position (labor function) of the employee;

4.start date;

5. term of the employment contract;

6. place of work;

This obligation arises in connection with the inclusion of a new subparagraph in paragraph 2 of Article 23 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

” 2. The employer is obliged to: … 29) send information about the employment contract concluded with the employee, containing the information provided by the subparagraphs 1), 2), 3), 4), 5) and 13) paragraph 1 of Article 28 of this Code, amendments and additions made to them, as well as termination of the employment contract and information about his labor activity in the unified system of accounting for labor contracts in accordance with the procedure established by the authorized state body for labor.”

The project also provides for the abolition of workbooks on paper from January 1, 2022. In this regard, the employer must, within 2 years, enter into the unified system of accounting for employment contracts, information about the entire work activity of the employee from the moment it begins. The draft amendments provide that the employer, on the basis of the employee’s notification, is obliged to grant leave without pay for the period of compulsory military service.

The accounting system assumes 2 ways of concluding employment contracts:

1. Through the portal Enbek.kz .

On the website www.enbek .kz The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan has posted Instructions for employers to register employment contracts on the Electronic Labor Exchange portal (www.enbek.kz ), which describes in detail the procedure for concluding electronic labor contracts.

To briefly describe the process, it looks like this: the employer is authorized on the portal, information on the applicant is automatically requested, since the system is integrated with government agencies. As a result, a personal file is formed, and then a draft employment contract is prepared. Necessary changes can be made to this template. The employee receives a notification about the formed employment contract in his personal account on Egov.kz and, after checking the data, signs the document using an EDS.

2. Integration of personnel systems of each enterprise directly with the Unified system of accounting of labor contracts
Currently, thanks to the E-HR employment contract accounting system, the state will have access to personal data, the ability to predict the release of labor resources and take measures for their employment.

Also, it is assumed that the risks of forgery of documents are excluded, since information is obtained through e-Government, information about education, medical certificates

In my opinion, there are a number of significant drawbacks for the employer and the employee:

• It is necessary to make electronic signatures beforehand, the registration of which will take time and additional expenses of the employer.
• The legislation does not provide for the possibility of using such a personnel document as evidence in court or other state bodies, if necessary. Only a paper copy of the contract with the original signatures and the employer’s seal is valid in court.
• The lack of an orderly system for storing such electronic documents forces us to systematize and store paper copies of them, and sometimes to conduct a double form of contract management in both paper and electronic form.
• The procedure for protecting personal data has not been thought out.