Kazakhstan: Plant workers go on a wildcat strike over “sheep” insult, 23 November 2022

Hundreds of workers at a chemicals factory in southern Kazakhstan said to be controlled by relatives of an influential politician declared a strike on November 23 and conducted a sit-in on the plant’s grounds.

Local media have offered varying causes for the standoff. RFE/RL’s Kazakh service, Radio Azattyq, cited one employee at Kazphosphate, which is located in the city of Taraz, as saying the strike was motivated by poor working conditions and low wages...

...[U]nnamed worker interviewed by the broadcaster complained that average salaries were only around 160-170,000 tenge ($350). “They tricked us last time. They only increased our salaries a little bit, and after that they reduced them. The situation in the factory is bad,” the worker said. “The equipment is all old, working is impossible.”...

Questions have also been raised about safety standards at Kazphosphate. News agency KazTAG reported in July that at least four employees had died in three separate accidents in just one month.

The company has even been hauled over the coal for its environmental standards. In July, it was fined after belching sulfuric gases into the nearby air following the failure of a purifying pump.