Private employment agencies to be obliged to have a reserve of $200 thousand

“Some people, trusting the agencies, lost a lot of money, left jobless in foreign countries. Everyone remembers the sensational story in the mass media and social networks of more than 7,000 citizens to whom private agencies caused damage in the amount of 72 billion soums. Criminal proceedings were instituted against their leaders, and money was returned to compatriots. But to prevent such a situation, amendments should be made to the current law. The lack of authority on the part of the licensing institution to verify the activities of private employment agencies leads to significant material damage,” Inomjon Kudratov, member of the Committee for Innovative Development, Information Policy and Information Technology, said. 

The current law does not define the obligations of private employment agencies in relation to job seekers and does not establish control over their activities.

Therefore, certain articles of the draft law are amended and supplemented. The bill improves the system of employment of citizens abroad, introduces a mechanism for paying the cost of employment services for people seeking work outside the Republic of Uzbekistan at the expense of a foreign employer, and determines the reserve fund in the amount of 8,500 BCAs. Thus, a reserve obligation of 1 billion 895 million 500 thousand soums or $200 thousand increases the responsibility of a private employment agency, the parliament notes.

The document also determines the specific amount of payment for the provision of information and consulting services by private employment agencies. In order to ensure transparency of activities, contracts for the provision of real-time services will be registered in the Labor-migration software package of the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations.

The bill is supplemented by a norm on the creation of an information exchange system for those who are looking for work abroad, in order to contact the competent authorities if necessary. The document gives the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations the authority to review the work of private employment agencies without interfering in their financial and economic activities.