Nepal signs labor pact with UAE

Nepal signs labor pact with UAE
eKantipur.com, 3-Jul-07
By PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

Nepal on Tuesday signed a labor pact with the Gulf state, United Arab Emirates, to ensure the safety and rights of Nepali workers.

Dr Ali Bin Abdulla Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of Labor, and Ramesh Lekhak, Nepal's Minister of State for Labor and Transport Management, inked the agreement.

This is the first bilateral labor agreement Nepal has signed with another country.

The agreement, which comes into effective immediately, makes both governments accountable for safeguarding the rights of Nepali laborers, and provides for salary standards and compulsory health insurance for Nepali laborers.

"The agreement also provides Nepali laborers working in the UAE the legal status to fight for their rights" said Minister of State Lekhak after inking the deal, adding, "Nepali workers will get all the benefits and legal rights enjoyed by other foreign workers."

The UAE has shown readiness to import more Nepali workers, and with the establishment of a favorable working environment, the number of workers leaving for that country will definitely go up in the days to come.

Talking to the Post, Acting Secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM), Umesh Mainali, said the agreement also has a provision for setting up a bilateral mechanism to exchange visits and review the status of Nepali workers every six months.

"Both governments will maintain and exchange data on Nepali laborers working in the UAE on a regular basis to identify their status." Mainali said.

Speaking on the occasion, UAE Labor Minister Al Kaabi said the agreement will target protection of workers' rights.

"The agreement also seeks to prevent improper practices by private manpower agencies which tend to exploit the workers by demanding exaggerated fees, providing false information about their working conditions in the host country." Al Kaabi said, adding, "The pact confirms the importance of supply and recruitment of Nepali labor force in accordance with the laws and regulation in force in both countries."

Al Kaabi also expressed concern about ill practices by manpower agencies that mislead employers in the UAE regarding workers' qualifications, experience and documents.

He hailed the contribution made by Nepali workers in the economic development of the UAE. The continued economic boom in the UAE will provide further employment opportunities in construction, tourism and the manufacturing sector in the coming days, said Al Kaabi.

Foreign employment agencies have also hailed the agreement as historic for the benefit of Nepali workers in the UAE.

"It is a great achievement for Nepal to ensure the safety and benefit of Nepali workers in the UAE", Hansa Raj Wagle, General Secretary of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) told the Post. He predicted that the agreement could push up the number of Nepali workers heading for the UAE by more than 30 percent this year.

Nepal has proposed bilateral labor pacts with half a dozen other countries.

Though Nepal had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar, the second most popular destination for Nepali labor, it is now dysfunctional since both the governments failed to ratify it within six months after signing the MoU.

During the first 11 months, 20,512 Nepali job seekers left for the UAE and more than 120,000 are currently working in this Gulf state.

UAE to establish labor office in Kathmandu

In a move to eliminate bad practices in laborer dealing, United Arab Emirates (UAE) is establishing a special labor office in Kathmandu soon said the UAE minister.

“Receiver and sender companies are cheating huge amounts of money from poor laborers through false promises and misleading documents in the absence of a proper mechanism,” he said at a function on Tuesday adding, “To eliminate such bad practices we are soon opening special office in Kathmandu to oversee labor issues.”

The office will be equipped with direct electronic networking to verify the misleading documents, he said.

“We don't want the agreement to remain only in writing, we want action.” he added.

He was speaking at a function organized by Nepal Association of Foreign Employer Agencies.