The authorities continue to persecute labour activists. On 13 December 2021, the leader of the Crane Operators’ Union “Ymit”, Saule Seidalhmetova, was convicted and sentenced to 10 days of arrest by the Specialised Inter-District Administrative Court of the City of Nur-Sultan for having taken part in an alleged illegal rally. Seidakhmetova was apprehended for the organisation of a meeting of crane operators and union members on 5 December 2021. At the meeting, the participants discussed with the authorities their demands that their wages be increased and where the meeting was planning to call a general strike.
On 27 October 2021, the police arrested Jenis Orynaliev, who in May 2021 was elected the organiser and president of the new platform workers’ trade union, active in organizing workers of the platforms Glovo, Chocofood, and Wolt. Orynaliev was arrested on the very day the new union planned to hold a strike in the City of Almaty. Although the management of Glovo and the Entrepreneurship Department of Almaty did initiate talks with the company couriers at the moment of the arrest of Orynaliev, for the subsequent seven months the union creation initiative group was unable to secure official registration.