Outsourcers apply for merger

The outsourcers have applied for merger as the government has increased the bank guarantee amount for them.
“Some 226 manpower agencies have applied for merger after the government amended the Foreign Employment Act to encourage them to go for mergers, , according to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). “After the merger process is completed, the 226 firms will become 98 manpower agencies.”
“Some 576 manpower companies have deposited their bank guarantee while some 533 have deposited cash guarantee, according to the amended Act, till today,” the department informed, adding that the government – through the amendment – has increased the guarantee money to operate a recruiting agency to up to Rs 60 million, some 20-fold increase from the previous amount forcing the manpower agencies to either merge or close down. “Those, which can not deposit increased bank guarantee amount will be forced to close down.”
Earlier, the outsourcing firms had been paying Rs 3 million as guarantee money – Rs 700,000 in cash and Rs 2.3 million as bank guarantee to run their business. There are almost 1,200 recruiting firms at present.
The government has fixed September 3 as the final deadline to submit increased bank guarantee for them. “If they fail to submit the increased bank guarantee amount, the department will revoke their recruiting licence,” the department informed, adding that the department has given the manpower agencies ample time to abide by the new provision.
According to the new law, the recruiting agencies sending up to 3,000 workers per year must deposit Rs 5 million and submit Rs 15 million as bank guarantee. Likewise, the outsourcing agencies sending between 3,000 and 5,000 workers must deposit Rs 10 million and submit Rs 30 million in bank guarantee, it reads, adding that those, who supply over 5,000 workers per year must deposit Rs 20 million and provide a bank guarantee of Rs 40 million to start their operation.

Manpower agencies threaten to launch protest

The outsourcers have threatened to protest as the government has failed to resume issuing work permits to Malaysia-bound Nepali workers.
The recruiting agencies have warned to stage protest, if the government does not start issuing Malaysian work permits within Tuesday. “The government is not serious towards resuming the permit for Nepali workers to Malaysia,” Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies said, adding that the association will start protest programmes from Wednesday.
Urging the government to immediately start issuing work permits to Malaysia, the association said it will start the protest by picketing at Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security claimed that a meeting of a joint technical team of both the governments of Nepal and Malaysia will soon sort out issues as the supply of Nepali workers to Malaysia has been halted since last May. After the government cracked down on Immigration Security Clearance and One Stop Centre that had been levying additional charges on Nepali migrants, the supply of Nepali migrant workers have halted.
The two governments also had inked a bilateral labour pact last October to resume the outflow of Nepali migrant workers to Malaysia but the delay in finalising the medical-related issues by both governments has made it difficult for the outsourcers to resume the outflow.

National employment summit concludes

Lack of skilled manpower in the construction sector has led the country's construction companies to hire labourers from India even after the government move to make it mandatory for workers of any sector to acquire a Permanent Account Number (PAN).
Registration of employees with the social security fund is also a challenge for the construction sector, said secretary general of the Federation of Contractors' Association of Nepal – during the National Labor and Employment Conference-2019 – Rosan Dahal.
Asking the entrepreneurs to spend most of their time in developing products, providing skills to the staff, and finding potential markets – during a panel session on ‘Work Culture and Dignity of Labour’, at the conference – he said that ensuring occupational, health, and safety facilities for workers and staffs can help in developing good work culture.
The entrepreneurs, on the occasion, also asked the government to help them find local raw material to manufacture Nepali products with economy of scale, in an organised way. The conference – organised by the government with an objective to identifying opportunities and gaps for employment creation and developing dialogue led consensus towards tackling pertinent labour and employment issues in Nepal – concluded today.
The founder of a startup cotton mill, in another session of the conference, 'Youth Employment in Nepal', Prasanna Basnet, said that the government should implement the programme announced in the budget. The discussion also focused on lack of access to resources for the entrepreneurs from the rural areas.
The two-day conference with a good participation from startup founders, entrepreneurs out of Kathmandu, students and representatives of trade unions, few representatives from the private sector and almost none from multinationals participated in the event, also discussed on utilisation of the knowledge and skills from returnee migrants were also discussed during the conference.

Pride and pains of labour immigration

Buoyed by the Maoist insurgency and growing unemployment, labour migration from Nepal has skyrocketed in recent times. The resulting remittance has become a major prop for the national economy. Despite September 1, the number of manpower agencies has also gone up. Despite many manpower agencies failing to comply with Foreign Employment Regulations and the National Labour Policy, the government has failed to bring them to book.
I don't blame only the government, says managing director of Sakura International Employment Consultancy Mahendra Kumar Rana. "Both manpower agencies and the government are responsible for the malpractices in this trade," he said, adding that in the absence of strict implementation of law, this sector is becoming vulnerable. The agency has which has sent more than 700 Nepali workers to Malaysia within the last one year. 
Deaths in foreign lands, reneging on contracts and facilities and arrests by immigration officials are some of the problems that Nepali immigrant workers face, another outsourcer adds.
Minister of state for labour and transport management Urba Datta Panta agrees. "Some of the problems occur due to lack workers credibility," he said, adding that it also depends on the honesty of manpower agencies. "Before sending workers abroad, agencies must explain all the rules and regulations, terms and conditions to the workers."
Some workers leave a company which is against the contract. Others try to overstay, which leads to problems, says Rana.
We have always clarified the terms and conditions to workers before sending them abroad, he says, adding that the result is that they have not received any complaint yet.
Speaking on the issue of bipartite agreements between Nepal and other countries on labour issues, the minister says that it is indeed needed. But other countries must also show a willingness, he says, adding that Nepal is a signatory of the UN agency IOM, that takes care of migrant workers world-wide. "Labour migration is a privately-organised affair in Nepal."
This is the age of privatisation. So, the private sector must come forward. But it must be professional, Pant adds.
Intense competition between the manpower agencies has taken an unprofessional turn. In order to win business, some agencies send workers on very low wages, accepts Rana.
A report on "Nepal's Dependence on Exporting Labour" by professor of development studies at the University of East Anglia David Seddon, reads that one of the major exports of Nepal is labour, and most rural households now depend on at least one member's earnings from employment away from home and often from abroad.
Malaysia tops the list of most favoured labour destination followed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Seddon also notes in the report that government's failure in developing a coherent labour export policy. Although this tiny land-locked Himalayan Kingdom recognises both the contribution remittances make to the national accounts and the increasing demand for Nepali workers abroad, the government is struggling to keep up with these trends, he adds.
The government can not ignore the importance of a sector that fetches around Rs 100 billion remittances annually.
With the approval of the Labour Act of 1985, Nepal officially recognised the value of foreign labour migration.