Employment 2025

AZERBAIJAN Trends and Developments Contributed by: Sona Abdullayeva and Ayna Abbaszada, Caspian Legal Center

came into effect on 5 May 2025. These modifications encompass not only the expansion of the scope of offences and the tightening of administrative penal - ties but also the improved application of supervision in the labour field. Extended term of administrative measures The scope of application of term limitation on imple - mentation of administrative measures in the field of labour has been expanded. Even though the law has set a short duration (four months) for general liability, for offences deemed graver, this duration is one year. The one-year term previously applied only to violations of the labour legislation has now been implemented on labour protection rules, as well as investigation and recording of labour accidents. Thus, administrative measures may only be taken within one year from the day of commission of the above-mentioned offences. Conditional application of administrative fine A number of violations have been added to the list of events for the application of conditional administrative fines. Conditional application of fines implies giving a certain period for eliminating the legal violation and thus being exempted from paying the fine. In the labour field, this type of administrative penalty may be imposed for violation of the rules for conduct - ing attestation of employees and workplaces by the employer, as well as for non-payment or incomplete payment of the employee’s labour and vacation pay, business trip expenses, benefits, and other payments provided for in labour legislation in violation of labour legislation. New pertinent administrative offences Changes have been made to the scope of applica - tion of the administrative offences that entails the failure to realise payments to the employee legally. If mathematical miscalculations and giving of payments were an exception to the relevant offences, now such exception is abolished. Ultimately any error falls into the scope of this offence. Therefore, without excep - tion, non-payment or non-full payment in accordance with labour legislation constitutes an administrative offence.

If previously only non-compliance with the normal working and rest regime was an offence, currently a fine has been set for involving an employee in over - time in violation of the requirements of labour legisla - tion as well. The Code regulates the exceptional cases in which overtime is allowed, limits of the work, circle of persons that are prohibited from being involved in this work, and other related matters. Consequently, non-compliance with any of the given provisions is considered an offence that leads to liability. Changes have been made to the administrative offence regarding mandatory insurance within labour relations. Previously a fine was imposed for failure to conclude a compulsory insurance contract with an insurer by individuals or legal entities that were required to compulsorily insure the relevant risks. Now the failure of mandatory insurance of each employee against the loss of professional work capacity as a result of occupational accidents and occupational diseases also constitutes liability. Additionally, although non-conclusion of an insurance contract was fined by AZN 500, currently this has been altered. Fines for non-conclusion of the insur - ance contract and failure to comply with the rules of mandatory insurance rules are set at AZN 1,500 for officials and AZN 5,000 for legal entities. When this administrative liability is applied, the appropri - ate mandatory insurance must be obtained within 20 days. During this period, the person cannot be held administratively liable again for the same violation. When violations are detected through special techni - cal devices with photo or video-recording functions, the 20-day period is calculated from the day the viola - tion is discovered. Changes to fines for violations of workplace accident investigation procedures Penalty amounts in the field of workplace accidents have been modified. The maximum penalty for failing to notify the Ministry of Emergency Situations on time has been increased from AZN 1,500 to AZN 2,200. Conversely, the minimum penalty for concealing the occurrence of an accident has been reduced from AZN 1,800 to AZN 1,000.

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