Changing employment terms in Uzbekistan

Employment terms are normally changed by agreement between the employee and employer. A change without consent is possible only when existing terms cannot be retained because of organisational or technological changes or reduced workloads; the employee receives two months’ written notice (Art. 137 LC), while contractual changes require a supplementary agreement and an order.

In brief:

• Terms written into the employment contract are changed by a written supplementary agreement in at least two copies and by an employer’s order.
• The employer cannot rely on its decision alone: it must prove why the existing terms could not be retained.
• Moving from full-time work to 0.5 FTE means part-time hours and proportionate pay unless the parties lawfully agree otherwise.
• The employee should obtain the notice and copies of the documents, record consent or refusal in writing, and observe the dispute deadline.

Updated: 04 September 2026

What counts as a change to employment terms

The Labour Code identifies five grounds for changing a contract (Art. 133 LC): changing working conditions, transferring the employee, the employer’s relocation to another locality, secondment to another employer, and changing a workplace specified in the contract. These situations differ according to whether the employee’s function changes, a contract with another employer is needed, and employee consent is required.

Working conditions consist of social and production factors (Art. 134 LC). Social factors include pay, working time, leave, and other conditions. Production factors include technical, sanitary, hygienic, workplace welfare, and other conditions in which the work is performed.

The contract must state the place and function of work (Art. 104 LC), start date, pay, the term and grounds of a fixed-term contract, any individual working-and-rest-time regime, guarantees for work under non-standard conditions, the nature of the work, and other terms required by law. Additional terms may cover a specific workplace, probation, combining jobs, protected information, post-training service, additional insurance, and social or welfare arrangements.

Additional terms are valid only if they do not reduce the employee’s statutory protection. A term that worsens the employee’s position (Art. 105 LC) is invalid, but this does not invalidate the contract as a whole.

How the parties change terms by agreement

A term is changed in the same manner in which it was established. A statutory term is therefore changed by legislation, a local term under the procedure for amending the local act, and a contractual term by agreement of the parties. A unilateral demand is ineffective except in the special cases permitted by the Code. This follows from the same-procedure rule (Art. 135 LC).

If the employee initiates the change, the employee submits an application stating the requested term and date. Where legislation, another labour instrument, or the contract provides the right to a change, the employer must consider the application within three days (Art. 136 LC). A refusal and its reasons must be given in writing; failure to explain does not prevent a challenge.

An agreed change is documented in this sequence:

1. The employee and employer agree the new term and its effective date.
2. They sign a written supplementary agreement in at least two copies.
3. The employer gives one copy to the employee, obtains an acknowledgement of receipt, and issues an order matching the agreement.
4. The employee reads and signs the order.
5. The change is registered in the Unified National Labour System (UNLS).

The documentation procedure (Art. 149 LC) governs the agreement and order. A permanent transfer, a contractually specified workplace, and relocation require a contract amendment. A temporary transfer is not added to the contract; its term and grounds are stated in the order.

Combining occupations, expanding a service area, and increasing workload are not transfers: the employee performs additional work alongside the main work for additional pay. This requires consent to the extra work (Art. 116 LC). A permanent arrangement is put in a supplementary agreement; a temporary one is recorded in an order after consent.

When the employer may act without consent

The employer may act without consent only if two conditions coexist: the employment function remains the same, and the existing conditions objectively cannot be retained because of changes in technology, the organisation of production and work, or a reduction in work, products, or services. A wish to reduce salary or alter a schedule does not itself permit this procedure.

In a dispute, the employer must prove the impossibility of retaining the conditions (Art. 137 LC). Relevant evidence may include records of new technology, structure, equipment, work processes, or a documented reduction in work, together with the link between those circumstances and the particular change.

Plenum Resolution No. 26 of 20 November 2023 explains that a court checks whether the changes occurred and whether the employee in fact refused the new terms. If the employee agreed to work under them, termination for refusal is unlawful.

A contract cannot reduce a statutory guarantee. Pay is subject to a specific rule: an adverse change without consent is prohibited (Art. 247 LC), except where existing pay cannot be retained for the same organisational, technological, or production reasons or in another case expressly provided by law.

How to give notice and document the change

The notice period depends on the employer and the rule being changed. Notice must be written and acknowledged by signature. It should identify the reason, the existing and proposed terms, the effective date, and the consequences of consent or refusal.

The two-month period may be shortened by agreement. The employer may replace the part exceeding two weeks with proportionate monetary compensation. Replacing the final two weeks also requires the employee’s consent. Because the Code describes the compensation as proportionate, the documents should record the replaced period and calculation.

Amendments and additions to an employment contract must be registered in the UNLS (Art. 109 LC). Under Cabinet Resolution No. 971 of 5 December 2019, the employer enters the supplementary-agreement data and confirms them with its electronic digital signature. Without that signature the agreement is unregistered. Incorrect entries may be corrected directly within five working days; after that the operator must be contacted.

How to change salary or move to 0.5 FTE

Moving to 0.5 FTE establishes part-time working hours; it does not automatically halve the salary rate for a full workload. A part-time day, week, or combination may be agreed at recruitment or later by agreement of the parties (Art. 186 LC), for a fixed period or indefinitely.

The employer must establish part-time work at the request of:

• a pregnant woman;
• one parent or a person replacing a parent of a child under 14, or a child with a disability under 16;
• a person caring for an ill family member under a medical opinion;
• a person with a disability where recommended by the medical-social expert commission;
• an employee in another case provided by law.

For part-time work, pay is proportionate to time or output (Art. 258 LC). The duration of annual basic leave, length-of-service calculation, and other employment rights are not reduced.

Example. The full-workload salary is 8,000,000 soums. If the parties set 0.5 FTE and the employee works the agreed hours in full, time-based pay is 8,000,000 × 0.5 = 4,000,000 soums before deductions. If the full-workload salary rate is also changed, that is a separate term requiring a lawful amendment.

Part-time work is different from reduced working hours. For specified protected categories (Art. 183 LC), reduced hours are provided without reducing pay. They include employees under 18, employees with Group I or II disabilities, employees in adverse working conditions, and certain medical and teaching staff.

How a transfer differs from workplace movement

A transfer changes the employee’s employment function with the same employer. Workplace movement keeps the same function and conditions and changes only a workplace not specified in the contract, a non-separate unit in the same locality, or a machine or other equipment.

Before obtaining consent to a transfer, the employer must inform the employee about the new work, its conditions, and the local acts governing it. Consent to a permanent transfer (Art. 140 LC) is mandatory. The exception for temporary transfers is limited to production necessity or downtime.

A transfer must state the start date; a temporary transfer must also state its term or terminating event. When it ends, the employer must restore the former job. These rules on the transfer term (Art. 139 LC) prevent a temporary transfer from continuing without definition.

An agreed temporary transfer normally lasts no more than one year (Art. 141 LC). If the period expires, the former work is not restored, the employee does not demand it, and the new work continues, the transfer becomes permanent.

When a temporary transfer needs no consent

A temporary transfer without consent is allowed only for production necessity or downtime. Production necessity covers the urgent and unforeseen work listed by the Code:

• preventing or eliminating downtime;
• replacing a temporarily absent employee;
• preventing or dealing with a production accident and workplace accidents;
• work during a state of emergency or emergency situation;
• preventing or dealing with a natural, technological, or environmental disaster, including fire, flood, earthquake, epidemic, or epizootic;
• other circumstances threatening the life or normal living conditions of all or part of the population.

The aggregate limit is 60 calendar days (Art. 145 LC) in a calendar year. Pay is based on the work performed but cannot be below the former average wage. Transfer to medically contraindicated work is prohibited, and a downtime transfer to work requiring lower qualifications needs written consent.

The collective agreement sets a shorter maximum within the statutory cap, the specific pay, and additional cases of production necessity. If there is no collective agreement, the employer agrees those matters with the trade union committee.

What guarantees apply to protected employees

In the cases provided by law, a medical opinion or family circumstances oblige the employer to change the work or schedule.

• An employee who temporarily needs lighter or safer work under a medical opinion may request a mandatory transfer. The recognised grounds (Art. 142 LC) also include pregnancy, inability of a parent or guardian of a child under two to perform the former work, and another valid reason where the employer has the work.
• If a medical opinion requires a permanent transfer, the employer must, with consent, provide a suitable vacancy if one exists. Refusal or the absence of suitable work (Art. 143 LC) may lead to termination with severance and job-search guarantees.
• When a medical transfer is to lower-paid work, the former average wage (Art. 364 LC) is retained for two weeks. For an occupational injury or other work-related harm, the responsible employer pays the difference until capacity is restored or disability is established.
• A pregnant employee’s output standards are reduced under a medical opinion, or she is moved on application to lighter or safer work with her former average wage (Art. 394 LC). Until the matter is resolved, she is released from work with average pay. Reducing pay because of pregnancy or children (Art. 392 LC) is prohibited.
• A parent or guardian caring for a child under two who cannot perform the former work is transferred on application with pay not below the former average (Art. 395 LC) until the child turns two.
• For a person with a disability, the MSEC recommendations (Art. 424 LC) on part-time hours, reduced workload, and other conditions bind the employer. Medically contraindicated work is prohibited.

Where termination is allowed only after an attempted transfer, the employer first offers work matching the employee’s occupation and qualifications, then other available work and, if necessary, suitable fixed-term work. Termination is possible after refusal, if no vacancy exists, or if the employee lacks the requirements. The complete vacancy-offer procedure (Art. 144 LC) applies to the grounds listed there; an ordinary refusal of new working conditions is not among them.

How workplace and remote-work terms change

If a specific office, site, non-separate unit, machine, or other equipment is written into the contract, changing it requires consent and a supplementary agreement. If it is not written in, the employer may move the employee within the same locality without consent, but only with the same function and working conditions.

A permanent move to remote work requires a supplementary agreement and order; a voluntary temporary move requires the employee’s application and an order. A temporary remote-work arrangement (Art. 453 LC) may last no more than one year. When it ends, the former regime and, if the function changed, the former work must be restored. The grounds for each order (Art. 457 LC) depend on the type of move.

An employee may be moved temporarily to remote work without consent after a disaster, accident, workplace accident, fire, flood, earthquake, epidemic, epizootic, or another emergency threatening life or normal conditions. If remote work is impossible, Article 454 allows the employer to:

• grant annual leave according to the leave schedule;
• with consent, grant annual leave out of sequence;
• with consent, grant partially paid leave;
• with consent, grant unpaid leave without the ordinary limit;
• introduce part-time hours;
• if those measures are impossible, record downtime for reasons beyond either party’s control.

These emergency measures (Art. 454 LC) are not a general right to send an employee home. Where technically possible, five employee categories (Art. 458 LC) have priority: pregnant women, parents or guardians of children under 14, persons with disabilities, old-age pensioners, and employees caring for family members who need assistance. A collective or employment contract may add categories.

What happens when the employer relocates

Relocation to another locality means a move to a distance that prevents the employee from returning home. The employer gives written notice at least two months in advance (Art. 146 LC). Consent is documented by a supplementary agreement. Written refusal permits termination with severance and job-search guarantees.

For an agreed move, the employer reimburses expenses and relocation allowance (Art. 289 LC):

• the actual ticket cost for the employee and relocating family members;
• carriage of up to 500 kg of the employee’s property and a total of up to 500 kg for family members;
• per diem for every travel day under business-travel rules;
• rent where the employee has no home in the locality and the employer provides no housing;
• one monthly salary for the employee and one third of that salary for each relocating family member, if they move within 12 months after separate housing is provided.

Example. The new salary is 9,000,000 soums and the employee moves with a spouse and one child. The relocation allowance is 9,000,000 + 3,000,000 + 3,000,000 = 15,000,000 soums. Documented travel, permitted carriage, per diem, and rent are reimbursed separately when Article 289’s conditions are met.

How secondment to another employer works

Secondment requires the employee’s written consent. The employee signs a separate fixed-term contract with the receiving employer, while the original contract is suspended. The initial term is no more than one year (Art. 147 LC). The employee and both employers may agree one extension of no more than a year. When secondment ends, the original employer restores the former work.

The receiving employer pays the salary. If it becomes insolvent, the sending employer must pay and may seek recourse. Where pay or rest conditions differ, the more favourable terms apply. The receiving employer investigates a workplace accident involving the seconded employee.

What happens if the employee refuses new terms

If, after notice, the employee refuses to continue under lawfully introduced new terms, the contract may be terminated. This is not dismissal for misconduct. The employer pays severance and provides the average-wage job-search guarantee.

A collective agreement, local act, or employment contract may provide more. All amounts, including severance, are paid on the termination date (Art. 172 LC). If the employee did not work that day, payment is due within three days after a demand for settlement.

Average pay, including severance, is retained for no more than two months (Art. 100 LC). If the employee registers with the local labour authority as a jobseeker within 30 calendar days after termination, the former employer pays average earnings for the third month on production of the authority’s certificate.

Example. Average monthly earnings are 8,000,000 soums and service with the employer is seven years. Minimum severance is 100%, or 8,000,000 soums. The two-month guarantee is capped at 16,000,000 soums including that severance. Timely registration and the required certificate entitle the employee to another 8,000,000 soums for the third month.

This section covers refusal of new terms, a medical transfer, or employer relocation. The general grounds, order, and final settlement for other forms of termination are explained in the article on employee dismissal. Use it when the dispute concerns the dismissal procedure itself rather than the contract change.

What the employer must check

Before issuing an order, the employer should check the legal ground, the source of the existing term, the employee’s protected status, the notice period, consent, the supplementary agreement, and UNLS registration. For a temporary transfer, the order separately records the term and the facts showing production necessity or downtime.

If the change affects as many employees as the mass-dismissal criteria, the employer consults the trade union committee in advance. The criteria include liquidation with at least 20 employees (Art. 98 LC), or 50 dismissals within 30 days, 200 within 60 days, or 500 within 90 days. For adverse changes on that scale, the employer must also explain the reasons to the local labour authority and the territorial or sectoral trade union association.

An official who breaches labour legislation faces a fine of 5–10 BRVs (Art. 49 CAL), where one BRV is the base calculation unit; this currently renders as 2.200.000–4.400.000 soums. A repeat breach within one year is punishable by 10–15 BRVs (4.400.000–6.600.000 soums), and a breach involving a minor by 10–20 BRVs (4.400.000–8.800.000 soums).

Example. At the current base calculation unit, the page tokens show the first range as 2.200.000–4.400.000 soums: 5 × 440,000 = 2,200,000 soums and 10 × 440,000 = 4,400,000 soums. If the BRV changes, the displayed amounts update automatically.

Only liability directly connected with employment changes is stated here. Other compensation owed to employees and the wider administrative and criminal rules are collected in the article on employer liability. It is relevant when the breach also causes dismissal, injury, or another independent consequence.

How an employee challenges an unlawful change

An employee may apply to the State Labour Inspectorate, which supervises employer compliance (Art. 535 LC), or use the employment-dispute procedure. Non-claim disputes about setting new or changing existing working conditions are resolved by the employer and trade union committee under the special rule for new terms (Art. 543 LC).

As a general rule, the employee chooses the employment disputes commission or the court. The dispute may be referred to a mediator before the court retires to decide the case. The choice of forum (Art. 545 LC) belongs to the employee.

The commission deadline is six months (Art. 554 LC) from when the employee knew or should have known of the breach. The court deadline for most other employment disputes is also six months (Art. 560 LC); a reinstatement claim has a three-month period from receipt of the termination order. Mediation suspends the running of the period.

An unlawful change requires restoration of the former terms (Art. 150 LC). The employee may recover a pay reduction, forced-idle pay or a pay difference after an unlawful transfer, and the former workplace where a specified workplace was changed without consent. The employer also reimburses lost wages (Art. 320 LC) when its unlawful conduct prevented the employee from working.

The dispute body restores the former work and terms, while the court awards earnings for the entire absence (Art. 561 LC) or the pay difference for the whole period of lower-paid work. Employees bringing claims arising from individual employment relationships are exempt from court costs (Art. 562 LC).

Frequently asked questions

May employment terms be changed without the employee’s consent?

Yes, but only in the narrow situation governed by Article 137 LC: the employment function remains unchanged and the existing conditions cannot be retained because of technological or organisational changes or a reduction in work. Written notice and the applicable period are required. The employer bears the burden of proving the grounds. A change in function is a transfer, for which consent is normally mandatory.

How much notice is required for a change in working conditions?

The general minimum is two months. It is one month for an employee of a microfirm and 14 calendar days for an employee of an individual entrepreneur or a domestic worker employed by an individual. The period may be shortened by agreement. Replacing the final two weeks with compensation requires the employee’s consent.

Is a supplementary agreement required to change salary?

Yes, where salary is stated in the employment contract. The parties sign a written supplementary agreement in at least two copies. The employer then issues a matching order and obtains the employee’s signature on it. The amendment is registered in the UNLS and confirmed with the employer’s electronic digital signature.

May an employer move an employee from full time to 0.5 FTE?

The parties may agree part-time hours and proportionate pay. Without consent, the employer must prove the Article 137 grounds and follow the notice procedure. Reducing hours does not itself permit an arbitrary change to the salary rate for a full workload. For pregnant employees, certain parents and carers, and persons with disabilities, part-time work is mandatory on request in the cases set by law.

May an employee be transferred to another position without consent?

A permanent transfer without consent is prohibited. The temporary exception applies to production necessity or downtime and is capped at 60 calendar days in total per year. Transfer to medically contraindicated work is prohibited. During downtime, transfer to work requiring lower qualifications needs written consent. Pay cannot be below the former average wage.

What can an employee do after an unlawful change?

Obtain the notice, supplementary agreement, and order; record objections in writing; and retain payroll records. The employee may apply to the State Labour Inspectorate, the employment disputes commission, or directly to court. Remedies include restoring the former conditions, work, or workplace, recovering lost pay, and claiming compensation for non-pecuniary harm.