Labour
law is embedded in this wider system of social relations;
the
weakness of impersonal rules in employment relations is
evident.
O
˝
zkan suggests that faced by problems, instead of going to
the
courts Uzbek business people ‘would seek the help and advice
of
their influential and powerful relatives and friends’ (O
2010:83).
According to Transparency International’s Annual
Corruption
Report (2012), Central Asian countries continue to
occupy
low positions in the control of corruption, rule of law and
judicial
independence indices. Moreover, unions’ legal rights
steadily
diminished during ‘transition’. In Kazakhstan, a 2000
revision
of the Labour Code shifted employment relations to an
essentially
individual basis by making only individual contracts
mandatory;
collective agreements at all levels were from this point
voluntary.
Unions retained the right to prevent the termination of
an
individual’s contract revoked (ICTUR, 2005). Parliament is at the
time
of writing considering further restrictions both on civil
liberties
in general, such as the right of assembly, marches and
freedom
of expression; simultaneously, the new trade union law
prohibits
such activities as enterprise unions or the basic level of
union
organisation by organisations without nation-wide status
Buketov,
2014). In short, enterprise unions (which may potentially
lead industrial action) are subordinated to national
organisations
(which are more subject to political influence).
Thus,
labour law has been continuously weakened although unions
continue
to resist these changes (Buketov, 2014).
¨
zkan,