1. Why not “as with an employee”
A full material liability agreement, a list of materially responsible positions, collective (team) liability and deductions from wages are instruments of the Labour Code (Articles 115 and 123). They exist only for employees.
If you move them into a contract with a self-employed person, the contract starts to look like an employment contract. And since 8 June 2026, under paragraph 1-1 of Article 26 of the Labour Code, a civil-law contract that has at least one sign of employment is treated as an employment contract. More in the article “GPH ban from 8 June 2026”.
2. Liability under the Civil Code
A self-employed contractor is liable to the customer as a party to a civil-law contract:
- for breach of an obligation, they compensate the losses caused (Article 350 of the Civil Code);
- they are liable if at fault and are considered not at fault if they prove they took all measures that depended on them (Article 359).
To recover damage, the customer must prove that it handed specific goods to this contractor, that the contractor breached the contract, the amount of damage, and that the damage resulted from the breach. That is why the key document is a goods handover act for each task.
If the contractor works with the customer’s materials under a work contract, the risk of their accidental loss or damage before the work is due to be handed over lies with the party that provided them, unless legislation or the contract provides otherwise (Article 618). The contractor must use materials economically, report on their use and return the remainder (Article 625).
3. Can damage be withheld from payment
A self-employed person is not an employee, so deductions from pay “under the Labour Code” do not apply to them, and referring to the Labour Code itself adds a sign of employment.
In civil law, mutual claims can be settled by set-off (Article 370 of the Civil Code). But a damage claim can be safely set off only when its amount is undisputed. If the contractor disagrees with the amount, a unilateral set-off is risky: they may sue for the unpaid fee.
A more reliable approach:
- the contractor signs a discrepancy act stating the amount of damage, and the parties sign a set-off agreement;
- or the contract sets in advance a penalty for a specific breach, for example for failing to return units accepted under an act.
A set-off is also a settlement under the contract. The self-employed person’s income is the full fee for the task, including the part settled by set-off, so the receipt and the 4% withholding are based on the full fee (Article 719 of the Tax Code).
4. Shortage after a collective audit
Splitting a shortage found in a collective audit among several contractors without establishing each one’s fault repeats the team material liability of the Labour Code. The company then gets both an argument for reclassification and a weak position in a dispute.
A self-employed contractor’s liability is built around the specific goods they accepted under an act and their own fault.
5. How to organise work with goods
What you can do:
- a handover act for each task with quantities in and out, signed by the contractor;
- photos or video at acceptance and handover;
- liability only for goods accepted under an act and only for proven fault;
- payment for the task result, not for a shift;
- a penalty for a specific breach agreed in the contract in advance;
- cargo insurance on the company’s side.
What not to do:
- a full material liability agreement;
- adding the contractor to the list of materially responsible persons;
- team liability and splitting a shortage “among everyone”;
- involving the contractor in stocktaking as a materially responsible person;
- deductions with reference to the Labour Code.
On warehouse work, see the article “Self-employed in the warehouse”.
Official sources: Civil Code of Kazakhstan, General Part, Articles 350, 359, 370 (adilet.zan.kz), Special Part, Articles 618 and 625 (adilet.zan.kz), Labour Code, Articles 26, 27, 115, 123 (adilet.zan.kz), Tax Code, Article 719 (adilet.zan.kz). This material is for reference and is not legal advice. Agree the liability terms of your contract with a lawyer.