Aziz Khakberdiev joined Better Work Uzbekistan in July 2023. Previously, he worked at the Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIU), the national employers’ organisation, until 2018. During his time at the CCIU, he was responsible for collaborating with the ILO and IOE.

He also held management positions in various projects, including Essentials in Occupational Safety and Health (EOSH), Know About Business (KAB) which educated young entrepreneurs, vocational training, job creation, sustainable job placements, and Enabling Environment for Sustainable Enterprises (EESE). This last project provided evidence-based recommendations on improving the business environment within the framework of the Decent Work Country Programme for Uzbekistan.

From 2021, he lectured in the Labour Law Department at Tashkent State University of Law (Uzbekistan). He has a Master of Laws (LLM) from Nagoya University (Japan), where he specialised in labour law. His area of expertise is employment contracts, particularly concerning informal employment and atypical workers.

In addition, he holds certificates from the ILO headquarters on “Decent Work & Labour Standards” programmes, ITCILO (Turin) on “International Labour Standards”, and the Korea Small Business Institute (Seoul) on the “Small and Medium Enterprises Policy Sharing Programme”.