Director who forced teachers in Andijan to transport waste was penalized (video)

A video showing teachers from the 37th General Education School in the Asaka district of Andijan region being subjected to forced labor has been widely shared on social media. The Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Employment has provided information regarding the incident.

The State Labor Inspectorate investigated the situation depicted in the video. The school's director had ordered that construction work be carried out at the educational institution and had forcibly involved around 30 teachers, educators, and technicians in the task of cleaning up construction waste.

The investigation revealed that the director had violated the requirements of Article 25 of the Labor Code (Obligations of the Employer) and Cabinet of Ministers Decision No. 349.

As a result, the school director was subjected to an administrative fine equivalent to 100 times the base calculation amount (34 million soums) in accordance with part 2 of Article 51 (Administrative Coercion to Work) of the Code of Administrative Responsibility.

It is important to note that, under the law aimed at enhancing the responsibility for preventing pedagogical employees from being hindered in performing their duties, if the offense is committed against a pedagogical employee of an educational organization, it will result in a fine ranging from 100 to 150 times the base calculation amount.

Additionally, under the relevant decision of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated August 14, 2018, it is prohibited to involve public education workers in tasks unrelated to their service obligations, such as forced labor, beautification and greening of district and urban areas, seasonal agricultural work, and other unauthorized types of work.

The Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decision titled "On Additional Measures to Eliminate Forced Labor in the Republic of Uzbekistan."

It is worth noting that earlier, the headmaster of the 43rd school in Pop district of Namangan region was fined for a similar offense. Despite the school being on vacation, the headmaster summoned the teachers to the school and forced them to perform unrelated tasks until 4:00 p.m.