A practical guide to employment law and hiring practice in Kazakhstan for German-owned groups

Unlike German employment law, which rests on a body of legislation that separates individual labour relations, collective agreements, and social insurance into distinct statutory codes, Kazakhstan consolidates the core employer-employee relationship in a single Labour Code that governs contracts, termination, working-time rules, and employer contribution obligations in one instrument. For German-owned groups establishing or expanding a presence in Kazakhstan — whether through a wholly owned subsidiary, a joint venture, or a representative office — the practical consequence is that compliance failures in one area frequently trigger cascading obligations in others. As of early 2027, regulatory scrutiny of foreign employers' compliance with local content and work-permit rules has intensified, making structured legal advice on Kazakhstan employment matters a necessary step before headcount grows.

Before engaging local staff or transferring German employees to a Kazakhstani entity, the employing legal entity must be correctly constituted and registered with the relevant state bodies. The following checklist summarises the minimum prerequisites:

• Legal entity registered with the State Corporation "Government for Citizens" (eGov portal) and assigned a business identification number (BIN)
• Registration with the State Revenue Committee for social tax and individual income-tax withholding purposes
• Registration with the State Social Insurance Fund (SSIF) and the Single Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) — both are employer obligations, not optional
• Approved internal labour regulations (internal rules of employment, or "PVTR"), which Kazakhstani law requires the employer to adopt and present to each employee for signature before the employment contract takes effect
• Work-permit quota confirmed or applied for if the entity intends to hire non-EAEU foreign nationals (see Step 2 below)

German groups that begin hiring before completing entity registration or SSIF/UAPF registration risk administrative fines from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population. The correction process — retroactive registration and back-payment of contributions with interest — is administratively burdensome and can attract tax-authority scrutiny across related contribution obligations.

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Kazakhstan operates an annual employer-level quota system for the engagement of foreign workers outside the EAEU. Because Germany is not an EAEU member state, German nationals transferred to a Kazakhstani entity or hired directly require a work permit, which in turn depends on the employing entity holding a confirmed quota allocation for the relevant permit category.

The quota system is administered by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection on a calendar-year basis. Employers submit quota applications typically in the autumn of the preceding year, specifying the number of foreign workers required by category (managerial, specialist, or skilled worker). Unallocated quota cannot generally be supplemented mid-year, which means that entities that delay their application — or that do not anticipate German secondee volumes accurately — may find that their German management or technical staff cannot commence work legally until the following quota cycle.

Employers who place foreign nationals in work roles without a valid work permit face administrative fines calculated per worker, and the foreign national may be subject to deportation. In practice, Kazakhstani labour inspectors have become more active in auditing foreign-employer compliance with quota and permit conditions, and the penalties for non-compliance have been increased in recent amendment cycles.

EAEU nationals — including citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia — benefit from a preferential regime and do not require a separate work permit to work in Kazakhstan. For German groups that have a Russian subsidiary and manage cross-border staff mobility across the Kazakhstan–Russia corridor, the EAEU free-movement rules offer a practical alternative route for certain technical and operational roles.

The Kazakhstan Labour Code requires all employment relationships to be formalised in a written employment contract, signed before the employee commences work. The contract must include: the position title and job description, place of work, working hours and rest periods, remuneration terms (base salary stated in Kazakhstani tenge), trial period if applicable (maximum three months for most categories), and the duration of the contract.

Kazakhstani employment law distinguishes between fixed-term and open-ended contracts. Fixed-term contracts are permissible only where the work is genuinely temporary in nature or where the Labour Code expressly provides for a fixed term — for example, replacement of an absent employee, or project-based work of defined scope. Routine use of consecutive fixed-term contracts to avoid open-ended protections is likely to be recharacterised by labour inspectors or Kazakhstani courts as an indefinite employment relationship.

For German groups accustomed to the German model of rolling fixed-term contracts (sachgrundlose Befristung under the Teilzeit- und Befristungsgesetz), this is a material distinction. Structuring secondment arrangements for German employees working in Kazakhstan requires careful attention to the interplay between the German home contract, the Kazakhstani host contract or secondment agreement, and the applicable social-insurance contribution regime.

The Labour Code also imposes mandatory minimum provisions on termination — the grounds for employer-initiated termination are set out exhaustively, and termination outside those grounds is subject to reinstatement claims and back-pay liability before Kazakhstani courts.

German-owned entities employing staff in Kazakhstan are subject to a layered set of employer-side payroll obligations, administered by two separate regulatory frameworks: the State Revenue Committee (tax) and the Ministry of Labour/SSIF (social contributions).

The principal employer obligations as of early 2027 are as follows:

• Individual income tax (IIT): withheld at source by the employer from employee remuneration at a flat rate; the employer acts as tax agent
• Social tax: levied on the employer (not the employee) as a percentage of the payroll base, payable monthly to the State Revenue Committee
• Mandatory pension contributions (OPV): withheld from employee salary and transferred to the UAPF; the employer also pays a mandatory employer pension contribution (OPVR) introduced in recent years
• Social insurance contributions: paid by the employer to the SSIF, calculated on a capped earnings base
• Compulsory medical insurance (OSMS): both employer and employee contribute; the employer withholds the employee share and remits both contributions

The combined employer-side burden — social tax, OPVR, OSMS employer share, and SSIF contributions — represents a significant addition to the gross payroll cost. German groups preparing Kazakhstan staffing budgets on the basis of German gross-to-net ratios will typically underestimate total employment cost; a Kazakhstan-specific payroll modelling exercise is advisable before headcount targets are set.

For German employees on international secondment, the question of where social-insurance contributions are due — Kazakhstan, Germany, or both — depends on the existence and terms of a social-security agreement between Kazakhstan and Germany and the specific structure of the secondment. This is an area where advice from specialists in both jurisdictions is material to avoid double-contribution exposure.

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The Kazakhstan Labour Code sets out the grounds on which an employer may initiate termination of an employment contract. The grounds are codified and exhaustive — an employer may not dismiss an employee for a reason that is not expressly recognised in the Labour Code, regardless of what the employment contract itself may state.

The principal employer-initiated grounds include: liquidation of the entity; reduction in headcount (redundancy); the employee's failure to meet the requirements of the role (confirmed by attestation procedure); repeated disciplinary violations; and a limited number of other defined circumstances. For redundancy, the Labour Code requires the employer to notify the employee at least one month in advance, offer available alternative positions (if any), and pay a severance amount calculated by reference to the employee's average earnings.

Collective redundancies — defined by reference to thresholds set in the Labour Code — trigger additional procedural requirements, including notification of the employment committee and, where a trade union is present, a consultative procedure with employee representatives. German groups familiar with the German Betriebsrat consultation requirements will find a broadly analogous, though procedurally different, framework in Kazakhstan for workforce restructurings above the relevant thresholds.

Dispute resolution for individual employment claims is conducted before Kazakhstani courts of general jurisdiction, with a conciliation step available at the individual level. The litigation timeline for contested termination claims, based on typical practice, runs to several months at first instance, with appellate stages extending the process further. Early-stage HR documentation — attestation records, disciplinary notices, offer of alternative positions — is the primary defence against reinstatement liability.

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• [Kazakhstan: company formation and market entry for foreign investors](/jurisdictions/kazakhstan/company-formation/)
• [EAEU trade and customs compliance for German-owned groups](/jurisdictions/kazakhstan/)
• [Corporate governance and joint ventures in Kazakhstan](/jurisdictions/kazakhstan/corporate-jv/)

Q: Do German employees seconded to Kazakhstan need a separate employment contract under Kazakhstani law?

A: In most cases, yes. Where a German employee is formally employed by a Kazakhstani legal entity — even on a temporary or secondment basis — the Kazakhstani Labour Code requires a written employment contract with that entity, setting out position, remuneration in tenge, and working conditions. A German home contract alone does not satisfy the Kazakhstani legal requirement. Some groups structure secondments as a shadow arrangement (German home contract maintained; Kazakhstani entity issues a separate secondment or service agreement), but this approach carries risks if the Kazakhstani entity is treated by regulators as the substantive employer. Legal advice tailored to the specific structure is recommended before the secondment commences.

Q: What documents does a German national require to obtain a work permit in Kazakhstan?

A: The work-permit application for a German national is filed by the Kazakhstani employer entity — not the individual — and requires, among other documents: a copy of the foreign national's passport, confirmed educational qualifications (typically subject to notarial legalisation or apostille and translation into Kazakh or Russian), the employing entity's confirmed quota allocation for the relevant permit category, and the draft or executed employment contract. The Ministry of Labour processes applications within a defined statutory period, though in practice timelines vary and should be factored into the secondee's start-date planning. The work permit is tied to the specific employer and position — a change of role or entity requires a new permit.

Q: Can a German-owned entity in Kazakhstan use a fixed-term employment contract for expatriate hires?

A: A fixed-term contract is permissible under the Kazakhstan Labour Code where the legal basis for a term is recognised — for example, replacement of an absent employee, a project with a defined end date, or the express agreement of both parties for a term of one year or longer. However, consecutive fixed-term contracts used to avoid open-ended protections are at risk of recharacterisation as indefinite employment. For expatriate hires whose assignment length is genuinely defined, a fixed-term contract tied to the permit and assignment duration is widely used in practice; the contract should nonetheless be structured with the Labour Code's recognised grounds in mind, not on the basis of commercial convenience alone.

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

The firm advises German-owned groups and other foreign investors on employment, corporate, and regulatory matters across Russia and the broader EAEU region. On Kazakhstan-specific matters, the firm works alongside contributing regional analysts and, where local admission is required, with trusted Kazakhstan-qualified counsel. With over 1,000 matters handled since inception, the team provides direct partner access on every engagement.

We are a Russian-qualified law firm. For matters governed by Kazakhstan law or requiring local admission in Kazakhstan, we collaborate with trusted counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.

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/

Aigerim Serikbayeva advises on Kazakhstan market-entry regulation, EAEU trade and customs matters, and employment frameworks for inbound foreign investors. She contributes regional analysis to Vetrov & Partners' Kazakhstan practice and works alongside the firm's Russian-qualified team on cross-border EAEU mandates.