CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL PROTECTION OF LABOR RIGHTS IN THE CONTEXT OF DIGITALIZATION: THE POTENTIAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF INDIVIDUAL CONSTITUTIONAL COMPLAINT IN THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

The digitalisation of labour relations has necessitated a reconsideration of the mechanisms of constitutional and legal protection of workers’ rights within national legal systems. As a result of the 2022 constitutional reform in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Constitutional Court was re-established and citizens were granted the right to submit individual constitutional complaints, thereby creating a new institutional mechanism for the protection of human rights. Nevertheless, the potential of this mechanism in the sphere of protecting labour rights under conditions of digitalisation has not yet received comprehensive scholarly consideration.

The principal aim of this article is to determine the capacity of the institution of the individual constitutional complaint to safeguard workers’ labour rights in the era of digitalisation and to systematise proposals aimed at improving legal regulation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study analyses the models of individual constitutional complaint operating in Germany and Türkiye and examines the legal nature and specific features of the Kazakhstani model. In addition, the article explores emerging legal challenges arising within the digital labour environment and provides a scholarly assessment of the first normative decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan concerning the freedom of labour.

The scientific and practical significance of the study derives from the institutional novelty of the constitutional complaint mechanism in Kazakhstan and the growing societal demand for effective protection of workers’ rights in the digital economy. The methodological framework of the research is based on systemic-structural, formal-legal, and comparative legal methods. Furthermore, the normative decisions adopted by the Constitutional Court in 2023–2024 were examined through the method of case analysis.

The article characterises the admissibility criteria governing citizens’ applications to the Constitutional Court and identifies new legal issues arising from platform employment, algorithmic management, and electronic monitoring of employees. It reconstructs the substance of the proportionality assessment methodology employed by the Constitutional Court and formulates five proposals aimed at improving legal regulation.

Keywords: individual constitutional complaint; Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan; constitutional and legal protection of labour rights; digitalisation of labour; platform employment.