The extractive industry can have both positive and negative impacts on human rights and society. The industry can make a significant contribution to much-needed economic growth, which in turn can provide the means to build infrastructure, provide better social services and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Despite the potential for positive change, the extractive industry is often associated with negative human rights impacts and communities that face adverse impacts of large-scale extractive projects on their human rights and the environment.

Eldar Tajibaev, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan, told us about the risks for human rights in Kyrgyzstan, how the mining industry copes with them and what is the role of trade unions in shaping respect for human rights on the part of business.

Informal employment in Kyrgyzstan is often cited as a major risk factor for human rights. Do you agree with this statement?

More than 70% of the country's population works in informal employment, they have no employment contracts and no contributions are made to their pension accounts. People do not know their rights, they are afraid to be unemployed and do not want to lose mandatory contributions to the Social Fund of the Kyrgyz Republic in their salaries.

“People in informal employment are not protected and can be left without work at any moment. Real access to decent work is provided only for a limited number of employees, no more than 500,000 officially employed out of 2.5 million employed people,” Eldar Tajibaev points out.

At the same time, in the mining and metallurgical sector, the number of informally employed is less, no more than 20%. This is due to the fact that large enterprises enter into labor contracts, create trade union organizations to protect the interests of workers' rights.

What human rights risks are most typical for the extractive industry in Kyrgyzstan?

“Risks are conditioned by the peculiarities of industry-specific professional activity. As a rule, it is associated with severe industrial and climatic conditions and the use of harmful, dangerous, toxic substances. And this is an additional risk to life and health, which requires additional guarantees, benefits and compensation. Not all employers are ready or willing to provide the necessary level of industrial safety and health protection for workers,” points out the chairman of the Central Committee of the Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan.

In the mining and metallurgical sector, women, people with disabilities are especially vulnerable, it is most difficult for them to secure their right to work and its decent conditions. Tadjibaev believes that this is due to the peculiarity of working in the mining and metallurgical sector due to difficult and dangerous conditions.

In his opinion, there is a huge difference in the observance of labor rights between large and small enterprises. Large companies are more responsible for respecting rights. In small enterprises, employees more often work without an employment contract, high staff turnover and low wages.

“As far as local and foreign companies are concerned, there is little difference. In local companies, there are already established social partnerships between the manager and the workforce, there are collective agreements. People are aware of their rights. Traditionally, in such companies, as a rule, people's rights are respected. Foreign companies need time to adapt to local laws,” emphasizes Eldar Tajibaev.

A key role in ensuring human rights in enterprises in the mining and metallurgical sector?

In the mining and metallurgical sector, the key role in ensuring respect for human rights is played mainly by trade unions, the Service for Supervision and Control of Compliance with Labor Laws. Eldar Tajibaev believes that in order to get rid of human rights risks in this sector, joint measures are needed between the state and the business sector, as well as information campaigns to inform the population about their rights.

What can act as an incentive to ensure respect for human rights?

First of all, the possibility of attracting investments. Attracted investments affect not only the country's economy, but this also implies the opening of new industries, the creation of jobs with decent working conditions, improves the situation with unemployment and the drain of qualified specialists. 

“Respect for human rights is a priority for investors from outside, because for them it is a mandatory norm,” said the chairman of the Central Committee of the mining and metallurgical trade union.

 When asked whether it makes sense for investors to contact trade unions before investing in a particular company in order to understand whether the company is behaving responsibly in relation to human rights, Eldar Tajibaev answers:

“Definitely it is worth contacting trade unions and they should be perceived not as an opponent, representative of the other side, another class or enemies, but as a partner. Many areas of work on personnel management, on ensuring labor discipline, safe working conditions, social block, cultural and mass areas can be taken over by the trade union and provide the employer with the necessary assistance.  

Do you have a positive experience in your practice when the trade union contributed to the cessation of the systemic practice of human rights violations?

“There were cases when a subsoil user company carried out its activities, while attracting contractors. If 1,000 people worked at the field, then 300 of them were full-time employees, and the remaining 700 were employees of contracting organizations. Almost all of these 700 people were involved without an employment contract, worked for 12 hours and received 500 soms per working day. The difference in wages with the employees of the main enterprise was 2-3 times.

Employees of these contracting firms appealed to the Central Committee of the Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan. We carried out explanatory work with employees, negotiations with employers, representatives of both contracting organizations and the parent company.

The conflict reached the stage of a peaceful rally and a spontaneous strike. As a result of negotiations with representatives of the company, it was possible to convince them to formalize the labor relations of this category of workers at the field, transfer them to the staff of the main enterprise, and pay them the legal official salary,” Eldar Tadzhibaev reports.

 Business clearly affects the situation with human rights. Any businessman, investor invests in any project in order to earn money. Unfortunately, some investors try to increase profits by saving on human resources, costs, and health and safety measures, and end up with costs, costs much more. There is a socially responsible business, with the principles of strict implementation of labor legislation, respect for labor rights and the willingness to establish strong mutually beneficial social partnerships with the workforce through trade unions.

This article is an element of an information campaign to promote human rights issues in the aspect of entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the UNDP project "Business and Human Rights" (B + HR), with the financial support of the Government of Japan.

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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is one of the leading development organizations in Kyrgyzstan. Since 1993, we have been working in various areas, including inclusive development, environmental protection, crisis response, gender equality promotion, and collaborative efforts towards sustainable development goals.

Media Contact: Nurzhan Alymkanova, Communications Specialist, UNDP Nurzhan.alymkanova@undp.org