The law and practice of employment law and hiring practice in Kazakhstan for Turkish-owned groups

Turkish-owned groups that have established or are establishing a presence in Kazakhstan encounter an employment and labour framework that rewards careful advance planning. The Republic of Kazakhstan operates a civil-law system with a dedicated Labour Code that imposes substantive obligations on employers from the moment of hiring — obligations that interact, in sometimes unexpected ways, with the migration controls governing non-Kazakhstani nationals, including Turkish nationals, who are brought into the operation. For in-house counsel and Turkish group-company managers overseeing the market entry, the practical question is not whether Kazakhstani employment law applies to their entity, but how it applies, and where the gaps between Turkish group-level HR policy and local statutory obligation will materialise first.

Kazakhstani labour law is codified in a single statute that has been in continuous development since the country's independence. The current Labour Code consolidates the rights and obligations of employers and employees and applies, without exception, to all legal entities registered in Kazakhstan regardless of the origin of their ownership or capital. A Turkish parent company operating through a Kazakhstani limited liability partnership or joint-stock company is, from the perspective of that Code, a Kazakhstani employer subject to Kazakhstani employment law.

Several features of the Code are of particular relevance to Turkish-owned groups. First, the Code establishes minimum standards from which the parties may not contract downwards. Employment contracts must meet minimum content requirements: they must specify the work function, place of work, remuneration structure, working hours, leave entitlement, and the rights and obligations of both parties. Contracts that are silent on mandatory elements are not necessarily void, but the statutory minima apply automatically in the place of the missing terms. Group-level template agreements drafted under Turkish or other foreign law therefore require systematic localisation before use in Kazakhstan.

Second, the Code draws a formal distinction between employment agreements (individual labour contracts) and civil-law service agreements. The Kazakhstani tax authority and the labour inspectorate apply substantive tests — not merely formal labels — to determine which legal regime governs a given working arrangement. Turkish groups accustomed to deploying secondees or contractors under civil-law frameworks should obtain legal advice in Kazakhstan before replicating those structures locally, as misclassification carries both tax and labour consequences.

Third, the Code contains specific provisions on collective agreements and the role of trade union organisations, which acquire relevance once a Kazakhstani entity reaches threshold employee headcounts. Turkish groups with established group-level collective bargaining arrangements will need to assess how those interact with the local framework.

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The single most operationally significant area of Kazakhstani employment regulation for Turkish-owned groups is the migration framework governing the deployment of Turkish nationals to work in Kazakhstan. Unlike the position between Kazakhstan and its EAEU partner states — Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan — where a simplified labour-access regime applies, Turkish nationals are third-country nationals for Kazakhstani immigration purposes and must obtain work authorisation before commencing employment.

Kazakhstan's work authorisation system is structured around two principal instruments: work permits issued to employers authorising the hiring of specific foreign nationals within an annually set quota, and corporate intra-company transfer permits for senior personnel and specialists. The quota system is administered at national and regional level. Quota allocations are set annually by the government and distributed across sectors and regions, meaning that the availability of quota in a given year and location is not guaranteed and should be confirmed as part of market-entry planning rather than assumed.

For Turkish-owned groups, the practical implications are as follows. Where the group intends to deploy Turkish nationals in senior management, technical specialist, or project-specific roles, the entity must apply for and obtain the relevant work permit before the individual commences employment in Kazakhstan. Retroactive authorisation is not available. The permit application requires, among other things, confirmation that the employer has been unable to fill the role with a Kazakhstani national — a requirement that interacts with the broader local-hire preference embedded throughout the migration framework.

The intra-company transfer category is available for senior managers and specialists employed by the Turkish parent entity who are seconded to the Kazakhstani subsidiary. This category is typically subject to a duration cap and is not a permanent solution for workforce planning. Turkish groups should assess, at the structuring stage, whether the roles they need to fill locally are genuinely transferable under this category or whether a separate local-hire strategy is needed.

"The quota-dependency of Kazakhstan's work permit system is frequently underestimated by Turkish groups at the market-entry stage. A permit that cannot be obtained in a given quota year cannot be substituted by a secondment or a civil-law arrangement — the employment must simply wait." — Aigerim Serikbayeva, Contributing Regional Analyst — Kazakhstan · EAEU Trade, Customs and Market Entry

Kazakhstan is a full member of the Eurasian Economic Union, alongside Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The EAEU Treaty creates a common labour market among member states: nationals of EAEU members working in another EAEU state are, in principle, not required to obtain work permits and are entitled to equal treatment with the host state's own nationals in employment matters. This significantly simplifies the deployment of Russian, Belarusian, Armenian and Kyrgyz nationals to work in Kazakhstan.

Turkey is not an EAEU member. Turkish nationals accordingly do not benefit from the EAEU labour-access regime. This distinction has direct operational consequences for Turkish groups that have historically relied on Turkish management or technical staff to anchor their regional operations. The EAEU framework does, however, create a secondary planning consideration: a Turkish group operating in both Russia and Kazakhstan may find it more efficient to staff the Kazakhstani operation through local Kazakhstani hires or through EAEU-national hires than through repeated Turkish-national permit applications.

There is, separately, a bilateral dimension. Turkey and Kazakhstan maintain active bilateral relations, including a strategic partnership agreement, and have concluded bilateral agreements in various areas. Turkish investors benefit from certain protections under the bilateral investment framework. However, these instruments do not replicate the EAEU labour-access regime. For employment and migration purposes, Turkish nationals remain third-country nationals in Kazakhstan, and no equivalent simplified access framework currently exists at the bilateral level.

The EAEU membership does confer a secondary benefit for Turkish-owned entities that structure their Kazakhstani operations through a holding company in an EAEU member state. In that scenario, staff seconded from the EAEU holding entity may access the simplified labour regime, subject to satisfying the criteria of the intra-company transfer provisions. Turkish groups with existing holding structures through Russia or other EAEU jurisdictions may wish to assess this angle as part of their employment-law structuring.

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The Kazakhstani regulatory framework embeds a consistent preference for the employment of Kazakhstani nationals across multiple instruments. The work permit quota system is the most visible expression of this preference, but it is not the only one. Certain categories of role — including a range of managerial and specialist positions in regulated sectors — are subject to explicit Kazakhstanisation requirements under sector-specific legislation. Foreign investors in natural resources, financial services, and certain infrastructure sectors should expect sector-specific local-hire mandates in addition to the general quota framework.

For Turkish-owned groups operating in general commercial sectors — manufacturing, trade, distribution, hospitality, construction — the local-hire preference operates primarily through the quota mechanism and through the requirement, embedded in permit applications, to demonstrate that the role could not reasonably be filled by a Kazakhstani national. In practice, this means that Turkish groups should develop a workforce-planning strategy that begins with local Kazakhstani hiring for all roles that do not require the specific knowledge, relationships, or technical expertise of a Turkish national, and reserves the use of Turkish national deployments for positions where the group can genuinely justify the preference.

This is not merely a compliance observation. The Kazakhstani market offers a substantial pool of commercially educated and often Russian- and English-speaking professionals, particularly in Almaty and Astana. Turkish groups with manufacturing backgrounds will also find a well-developed technical workforce in the country's industrial regions. In the experience of advisers working in this corridor, Turkish employers who approach the Kazakhstani labour market with an active local-hire strategy — rather than defaulting to Turkish national deployments — typically encounter fewer regulatory frictions, build stronger local management teams, and integrate more effectively into the Kazakhstani business environment.

Employment contracts with Kazakhstani nationals must be drafted in Kazakh or in Kazakh and Russian. A Turkish-language contract, or a contract in a third language without an official Kazakhstani language version, does not satisfy the formal requirements. Turkish groups should establish a standard localisation process for all employment documentation before the first Kazakhstani hire.

Beyond the hiring stage, the Kazakhstani Labour Code governs the full lifecycle of the employment relationship, including the specific grounds on which an employer may lawfully terminate, the procedural requirements for each termination ground, and the consequences of non-compliant termination. Several features of this regime differ materially from Turkish labour law and from the expectations of Turkish group HR teams.

Kazakhstani law provides a closed list of grounds on which an employer may initiate termination of an employment contract. Termination outside these grounds — or on a valid ground but without following the required procedure — exposes the employer to reinstatement orders and compensation claims. The most frequently litigated areas involve reductions in headcount (redundancy-equivalent procedures), which require specific procedural steps including advance notice to the employee and to the relevant state body, and performance-based dismissals, which require a documented prior warning and assessment process.

Notice periods and severance entitlements are set by statute and may be increased but not reduced by individual agreement. Turkish group HR teams accustomed to negotiating exit terms privately and informally, as is sometimes the practice in Turkish labour markets, should note that Kazakhstani labour disputes are handled by the general courts — the district courts for most claims — and that courts apply the statutory requirements strictly. The Kazakhstani labour dispute resolution system also includes a mandatory pre-court conciliation stage for certain categories of dispute, which affects the timeline for escalation to litigation.

Kazakhstani courts have jurisdiction over employment disputes where the employment is performed in Kazakhstan, regardless of the law designated in the contract. A choice-of-law clause in favour of Turkish law or any other foreign law is not effective to oust Kazakhstani jurisdiction over a Kazakhstani employment relationship. Turkish group counsel should treat the mandatory employment law framework as non-negotiable and structure group HR policy accordingly.

For Turkish groups that deploy Turkish nationals to Kazakhstan under secondment arrangements with a continued Turkish payroll element, there is a dual-exposure risk: the individual may acquire employment rights both under Turkish law (as a continuing Turkish law employee) and under Kazakhstani law (by virtue of performing work in Kazakhstan). The allocation of those rights should be addressed in the secondment agreement and reviewed by counsel in both jurisdictions.

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• [Company Formation and Market Entry in Kazakhstan for Foreign Investors](/jurisdictions/kazakhstan/company-formation/)
• [Kazakhstan Employment & Migration — Practice Overview](/jurisdictions/kazakhstan/employment-migration/)
• [Cross-border Disputes in Kazakhstan — What Foreign Companies Need to Know](/jurisdictions/kazakhstan/disputes/)

Q: Do Turkish nationals need a work permit to work in Kazakhstan?

A: Yes. Turkish nationals are third-country nationals under Kazakhstani immigration law and must obtain a work permit before commencing employment in Kazakhstan. The EAEU simplified labour-access regime does not apply to Turkish nationals, as Turkey is not a member of the Eurasian Economic Union. Work permits are employer-held instruments, subject to an annually set national quota. The availability of quota in a given region and sector must be confirmed in advance of deployment. Intra-company transfer permits are available for senior managers and specialists seconded from the Turkish parent entity but are subject to duration limits and are not a substitute for a long-term workforce strategy.

Q: Can a Turkish-owned company in Kazakhstan use Turkish-law employment contracts?

A: No, not without modification. All employers operating through a Kazakhstani legal entity are subject to the Kazakhstani Labour Code, which applies mandatory minimum standards that cannot be displaced by a foreign-law choice. Group-level employment templates prepared under Turkish law must be systematically localised before use in Kazakhstan. Employment contracts must be executed in Kazakh or in both Kazakh and Russian. A contract that fails to meet the mandatory content requirements of the Labour Code will be supplemented by the statutory minima, which may not reflect the group's intended terms.

Q: What are the main risks of misclassifying a Turkish employee as an independent contractor in Kazakhstan?

A: Misclassification exposes the Kazakhstani entity to reclassification by both the labour inspectorate and the tax authority, independently of each other. Where a relationship is found to be employment in substance, the employer becomes liable for all employment taxes, social contributions, and any employer obligations that were not met during the period of the arrangement. The individual may also acquire employment rights — including termination protection and leave entitlements — that were not provided. The risk is heightened where the individual performs work exclusively or primarily for one entity, works at the entity's premises, and follows the entity's instructions regarding method and timing of work.

Q: How does the EAEU framework affect Turkish groups that operate in both Russia and Kazakhstan?

A: Turkish groups with operations in both Russia and Kazakhstan may find workforce-planning efficiencies in the EAEU corridor. Russian nationals — as EAEU members — do not require work permits to work in Kazakhstan and are entitled to treatment equivalent to Kazakhstani nationals in employment matters. A Turkish group that has developed a Russian-national management or technical team can deploy those individuals to Kazakhstan without triggering the quota and permit framework that applies to Turkish nationals. This is a planning consideration relevant to how Turkish groups structure staffing for multi-country Eurasian operations, and should be reviewed alongside corporate structure and tax considerations.

Q: Where are employment disputes with Kazakhstani employees litigated, and can Turkish law govern the contract?

A: Employment disputes arising from work performed in Kazakhstan are adjudicated by the Kazakhstani courts, typically the district courts of the relevant region, regardless of any foreign-law designation in the employment contract. Kazakhstani law applies as mandatory law to employment relationships performed on Kazakhstani territory. A contractual choice of Turkish law is not effective to displace the mandatory provisions of the Kazakhstani Labour Code. Certain categories of dispute require a mandatory pre-litigation conciliation stage. Turkish group counsel should plan for Kazakhstani-law claims as the baseline exposure and ensure that termination decisions are procedurally documented under Kazakhstani requirements.

Vetrov & Partners is a Russian boutique law firm established in 2009, recognised by Pravo-300 for eight consecutive years and listed as a trusted adviser by the German Consulate General in Novosibirsk.

The firm's Kazakhstan advisory practice provides foreign investors — including Turkish-owned groups pursuing market entry or operational consolidation in the EAEU corridor — with coordinated legal support on employment, migration, corporate structure, regulatory compliance, and cross-border dispute matters. With over 1,000 matters handled since inception, the team combines direct partner involvement on every engagement with deep knowledge of the Eurasian legal corridor. For Kazakhstan matters requiring locally admitted counsel, the firm collaborates with trusted Kazakhstani practitioners.

Enquiries: info@vetrovpartners.com | WhatsApp / Telegram: +7 (983) 510-38-76 | t.me/vitvetcom

This publication is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice under Russian or any other applicable law. The information herein should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel tailored to your specific circumstances. Vetrov & Partners is a Russian-qualified law firm. For matters governed by foreign law or requiring local admission in another jurisdiction, we collaborate with trusted counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@vetrovpartners.com.

— Aigerim Serikbayeva Contributing Regional Analyst — Kazakhstan · EAEU Trade, Customs and Market Entry vetrovpartners.com/contributions/