Support and development of work from home in Tajikistan

On 3 November 2009, Dushanbe hosted a round table on “Support and development of work from home” supported by dvv international and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. 

The round table participants were some 30 representatives of various ministries, and local and international social organizations. The round table was held in Tajik and Russian languages and was covered by TV and press representatives. The round table organizers aimed to make a first step to discuss the development of work from home in Tajikistan to improve living standards of the population. 

Several participants made reports which aroused a general discussion. 

Mr. Umed Ziedaliev, staff of the Ministry of Labor, set examples of various countries using work from home. The challenge faced by Tajikistan in this area is that work from home exists, but registration, statistics and legal protection of home workers are non-existent. 

Relevant legal issues of the applicable Labor Code were covered by a lawyer participating in elaboration of the new draft Labor Code of Tajikistan. The new Labor Code, which will take account of home workers’ rights, is planned to be approved in 2010. The problem of relationship between a private hirer and a home worker was raised, as the mechanism of control over relations between a home worker at someone else’s house and a hirer had not been worked out. The issue of non-compliance with the laws was discussed as well. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice made a proposal to develop a mechanism for interaction and control. In the course of this discussion, an issue was raised about qualification of the social protection agency personnel and poor awareness of people of their rights and social protection. Overall, the Social Protection Agency has 67 employees, and, according to staff of the Republican Statistics Department, only 10% of individual entrepreneurs is registered, which accounts for some 120,000 people. The population needs information on its social protection rights. Currently, no government authority disseminates this information. Individual entrepreneurs are even unaware that they can register labor books at tax authorities. A conclusion suggested itself, and the whole audience agreed that Tajikistan had no registration of home workers at all, neither at statistical agencies, nor at tax authorities. 

The new Labor Code will take into account items of the International Labor Convention. Presentation by Mr. Khurshed Saidov, representative of the Entrepreneur Support Association in Dushanbe, touched upon education sector. Currently, in Tajikistan private educational services must be licensed by the Ministry of Education. This is a barrier to promotion of educational services. It was suggested that such teachers be categorized as private entrepreneurs without a license. Representatives of the Ministry of Education and staff of tax authorities agreed on that. A representative of the Tax Committee assured the audience that they would take into account all the proposals and discuss them at their meetings. In addition, it was suggested that the Ministry of Labor should send a letter to the Tax Committee and inform it on the changes introduced into the new Labor Code, so that the Tax Code could be modified at the same time. Otherwise, introduction of the new Labor Code will not be possible.  

The round table discussed the concept of “work from home”. If previously this concept was required to denote physically demanding and semi-skilled labor, now this category includes highly skilled labor: computer operators, cooks, and teachers. Work from home improves social employment of disabled and sick people, and provides an opportunity to upgrade professional and technical skills of population.  

The round table resulted in a recommendation for the Ministry of Labor to set up a working group to perform analysis and prepare recommendations for oncoming laws. State authorities approached international and local social organizations with a request to help them address those issues. A proposal to ratify Convention 177 of the International Labour Organization was declined due to the fact that regulation mechanism for work at home had yet to be developed.  

Zarina Khalikova,

National Coordinator in Tajikistan, 

dvv international