The article examines the possibilities and legal limits of individual contractual regulation in protecting the labour rights of employees who observe religious norms. The relevance of the study stems from the increasing individualisation of contemporary employment relations and the need to reconcile employees’ religion-related needs with the legitimate interests of employers. In this context, the employment contract is considered not merely as a document defining the rights and obligations of the parties, but also as a legal instrument through which specific working conditions may be agreed upon with due regard to an employee’s individual needs.

The purpose of the study is to determine the legal nature of individual contractual mechanisms for protecting the labour rights of employees who observe religious norms and to identify the possibilities and limits of their application. The study employs formal legal, comparative legal, systemic-structural, and legal modelling methods. In addition to the labour legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, relevant academic literature and foreign legal experience are examined.

The analysis distinguishes between an employee’s religious need and the specific working conditions through which that need may be accommodated within the employment relationship. The existence of a religious need does not in itself provide grounds for an automatic modification of working conditions. Whether such a need can be accommodated should be assessed in light of the nature of the employee’s work duties, occupational safety requirements, the employer’s organisational capacity, and the rights and legitimate interests of other employees. Kazakhstan’s labour legislation does not establish a specific general procedure for accommodating such needs. The article therefore proposes clarifying the limits of individual contractual regulation and improving legal mechanisms aimed at preventing both direct and indirect discrimination.