What are labor laws and is it important to follow them? Why did they come up with labor safety rules? How does compliance by companies with social, corporate and labor standards impact on exports? All these and many other questions were considered at the seminar held on Monday, May 30.

The event was held in Ashgabat and was organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Safe Migration in Central Asia Program, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Turkmenistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Turkmenistan.

Representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Turkmenistan, the Office of the Ombudsman of the country, the Main State Service “Turkmenstandartlary”, the Union of Economists Turkmenistan and employees of private consulting, agricultural and construction companies took part in work of the seminar "The Importance of Compliance with Social, Corporate and Labor Standards in the Private Sector and its Impact on Exports”.

Speakers from the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, American international labor standards experts, UNODC experts and their Turkmen counterparts discussed how to accelerate and expand business promotion and export potential. During the meeting, there was an active exchange of international and regional experience, examples of successful innovative approaches to the prevention of labor violations were presented.

Reda Sirgediene, UNODC Regional Adviser in Central Asia on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Smuggling of Migrants, introduced the workshop participants to examples of public-private partnerships to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings, and Saara Haapasaari, an international expert in the field of corporate and social responsibility, presented the Guidance on due diligence of companies from the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control in Helsinki, the Center for the Study of Democracy in Bulgaria, the University of Tartu in Estonia and the Latvian Ministry of the Interior.

The speeches of the representatives of Turkmenistan turned out to be very interesting: a member of the Office of the Ombudsman of Turkmenistan spoke about the norms of national labor legislation and the importance of their observance, and an employee of the Main State Service "Turkmenstandartlary" spoke about compliance with labor safety rules in the agricultural and construction sectors.

After each speech, the speakers answered questions, of which there were many, which indicated the genuine interest of those present in the topics raised at the seminar. This was also evidenced by the intensity (in a positive sense) of conversations on the sidelines, where they discussed what they heard and saw during the video presentations.

Both international and Turkmen experts, summing up the results of the seminar, were unanimous in their opinion: “Turkmenistan’s desire to increase exports and enter international markets requires raising the level of awareness of legislators and representatives of the private sector about international standards for ensuring environmental, social and corporate responsibility and effective protection of rights of workers in enterprises”.

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