Occupational injury is damage to an employee’s health received during the performance of their work duties leading to loss of ability to work. This means that if employee is injured while at the workplace during working hours, this will be classified as an industrial accident.
As Yelena Taytugoleva, Deputy Board Chairman of LIC Nomad Life, notes, all Kazakhstani employees must be protected by compulsory accident insurance (CAI).
According to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On compulsory insurance of employees against accidents during the performance of their labor (official) duties,” each employee must be insured by the employer and at the expense of the employer. This applies to absolutely all employees, regardless of their position or the size and type of the company. And to find out about the availability of such insurance and their security, people only need to contact the HR department.
“There are no other possible options, because companies, when insuring their employees, do not indicate any personal data of employees (IIN, full name, position, etc.) but only the number of people and the annual payroll of the enterprise itself. But I must admit that there are often cases when hired employees are not vigilant and do not think about whether they are insured when performing their work or not,” the expert notes.
If it turns out that employer ignores the registration of compulsory accident insurance of employee (CAI), this will be considered a violation of labor legislation. In this case, according to the expert, the injured employee has every right to file a complaint with the state labor inspector at the place of residence or the location of the employer, or with the judicial authorities.
The complaint must be submitted in writing, indicating the employee’s full name, title of the position held, the employing company’s full name and legal address, a detailed description of the violation, and received medical examination.
If the employee’s rights violation is established, the state labor inspector will issue a legal letter to the employer.
Failure by the company to insure employees against accidents, in accordance with item 2 of Article 230 of the Administrative Code, entails a fine:
- On small businesses or non-profit organizations - 160 MCI (552,000 tenge as of 2023);
- On medium-sized businesses – 400 MPR (1,380,000 tenge);
- On large businesses – 1000 MCI (3,450,000 tenge).
If employee loses professional ability to work, the employing company will be obliged to compensate 100% of the amount of lost income for the entire time until professional ability to work is restored.
“In addition, the company’s management will still be required to enter into CAI agreement with insurance company, which includes coverage for each employee. From my own experience, it is better to immediately insure employees and observe safety procedures in the workplace than to suffer colossal financial losses in the future,” says Yelena Taytugoleva, Deputy Chairman of the Board of LIC Nomad Life.
Photos are from open sources.
