Pursuant to article 22 of the Work Safety Act of the Republic of Kazakhstan of 22.01.1993, the management of a company shall provide training and instructions, and shall regularly assess the knowledge of all its employees regarding work safety within the time periods and in accordance with procedures set forth by the relevant regulations. Those employees who have not passed training, who have not received instructions and who have not passed the assessment of their knowledge of safety rules, shall not be allowed to work. All matters related to such assessment itself are regulated by the Recommended Practice for Assessment of Knowledge of Work Safety Rules of Managers and Specialists dated 03.04.1995 (hereinafter, the Recommended Practice). Its major provisions are the following:

1. The Recommended Practice provides for mandatory procedures of assessment of the safety knowledge of managers, engineers and technicians and those organizing and carrying out work directly on sites, and the assessment of safety knowledge of persons carrying out technical supervision over operational safety (hereinafter, the managers and specialists) at organizations and companies (hereinafter, companies), regardless of their form of ownership and form of conducting business, within the scope of qualification requirements set in their job descriptions and the character of the work performed by them. The list is provided as Schedule 1 attached to the Recommended Practice.
2. Companies shall develop and approve their safety policies based on the Recommended Practice, listing in such policies the positions of employees whose knowledge of work safety shall be assessed, and co-ordinate the policies with their regional State Office of Safety Supervision.
3. The Recommended Practice provides for the following methods of assessment:
1. An examination committee can be created within the company in accordance with the procedures and requirements of the committee membership stated in the Recommended Practice.
2. The safety knowledge can be assessed at regional State Offices of Safety Supervision which have their own committees, or at specialized centers having a special license from the State Office of Safety Supervision.
4. The Recommended Practice also determines the general requirements of the methods and procedures of assessment and the subject of assessment.
5. In accordance with the Recommended Practice, the assessment results shall be recorded in the examination minutes, to be signed by the chairman and the members of the examination committee. In addition, certificates shall be issued to employees who successfully pass the assessment at companies with especially hazardous work conditions; the certificates shall be signed by the chairman and a member of the examination committee, who is an inspector from the State Supervision and Control Authority.
6. The Recommended Practice also contains provisions on accountability for the unsatisfactory results of an assessment.
7. The Recommended Practice provides for the following methods of assessment of safety knowledge: initial, regular and extraordinary:

The initial assessment shall be conducted not later than one month from the date the specialist assumed his or her position;

Regular assessments shall be conducted at least every three years;

Extraordinary assessments of work safety shall be conducted when:

• new or revised safety regulations have been introduced;
• new equipment or new technological process have been introduced;
• an employee has been transferred to another place of work or assigned to another position which requires additional knowledge of work safety rules;
• an accident has occurred with single and multiple deaths or disabilities, or an incident involving damage of equipment, explosion, fire or poisoning;
• requested by the State Supervision and Control Authorities;
• interruption in work exceeds one year.

An extraordinary assessment of safety knowledge can also take place within the scope of the requirement of specific documents whose list is set forth by the authorities which requested such an assessment to be conducted.