The Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, at the initiative of the International Labor Organization (ILO), has held a seminar in the form of a video conference on the results of the "Support for the implementation of the country program for decent work of the Republic of Uzbekistan" project On April 12, 2021.

The event was attended by: Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Chairman of the National Commission on combating Human trafficking and forced labor T. Narbayeva, Assistant Director-General of the ILO H.Koller, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan D.Rosenblum, Minister of Employment and Labor Relations N. Khusanov, Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan K. Rafikov, Executive Director of the Confederation of Employers of Uzbekistan E. Margishvili, Director of the ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia O.Kulaeva, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations of the Republic of Uzbekistan N. Yakubov and others.

At the beginning of the meeting, O. Kulaeva also informed the participants of the event about the agenda. Due to the visit of the Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis T. Narbayeva to Moscow, her pre-recorded video was shown to the participants. It was noted that that the country program on decent work of the Republic of Uzbekistan has led to cardinal positive changes in the country, in particular, this project has has eliminated child forced labor in the country.

In addition, T.Narbayeva claimed that Uzbekistan, in close cooperation with the International Labor Organization, has been carrying out a number of works in the field of prevention of child labor and forced labor, protection of labor rights of citizens since 2013. Within the framework of the program, a wide range of works has been carried out in the country in order to improve national legislation on the protection of labor rights of citizens and to implement international labor standards in practice. Assistant Director-General of the ILO in his report, stressed that Uzbekistan has ratified 17 conventions including 8 fundamental conventions of the International Labor Organization. Moreover Mr. Koller noted that the adoption of 16 regulatory documents aimed at further improving of the national legislation of Uzbekistan in the field of labor, the elimination of any manifestations of child labor and forced labor in 2020, demonstrated the effectiveness of this Program.

After that, the US Ambassador to Uzbekistan, D.Rosenblum highlighted that monitoring is aimed to ensure the full protection of citizens' rights in the field of work, while parliamentary control is strengthening consequently. In this regard, D. Rosenblum highly appreciated the policy aimed at improving the legal culture among the population.

The Minister of Employment and Labor Relations N.Khusanov notified that the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations is implementing measures for ratification ILO Conventions No. 132 on Holidays with pay and No. 183 on the Revision of the Maternity Protection Convention, 1952. In particular, Convention No. 183 has already been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers, while the ratification of ILO Convention No. 132 is at the stage of governmental interagencies discussion.

In addition, N. Khusanov stressed that, in accordance with the Presidential Decree, the system of vocational education was reorganized in order to train specialists for each region of the country, and also informed the public that some of the country's vocational educational institutions were transferred to the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations.

In addition, In his speech, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations N. Yakubov said that in order to prevent forced labor in cotton production, modern methods are used to attract seasonal workers to the cotton harvest voluntarily. In 2020 the Ministry with the assistance of the ILO has developed a temporary Regulation on the employment of cotton pickers which has been further approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.

In addition, Deputy minister expressed gratitude to the members of the ILO for the providing expert and technical assistance in the development of a new draft of the labor Code and the law "On Employment of the Population" and the law "On Private employment agencies".

Further during the event, the ILO experts A.Dubova, A. Hauzsen, A. Khankhodjaev, G. Aleksandria, V. Churovich and others expressed their views and opinions on the results of the Country Program implementation, further strengthening of cooperation, and the potential for further development and application of new practices in the context of reforms in the country.

During the round table, the results of the work carried out within the framework of the "Decent Work Country Programme 2014-2020" were summed up as well as the future tasks to the coming new country program have been discussed.