Labour Accord

Nepal and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a deal to arrange and regulate exchange of workers with a view to ensuring that Nepalese labourers working in the UAE are protected and conferred with the rights that are universally granted to the workers employed outside their own countries. This is the first bilateral agreement of its kind which has been agreed upon and initialled between Nepal and the countries of the Gulf. Although a similar accord was said to have been signed with Qatar at the time of the Royal regime some one-and-a-half years ago, it is, according to the Minister of State for Labour and Transport Ramesh Datta Lekhak, the first accord that entrusts legal status to the Nepalese workers employed in any country outside Nepal. The bilateral agreement comes into effect soon, and the salient features of the deal makes the government of Nepal and the UAE accountable for safeguarding the rights of the Nepali labourers and maintaining salary standards and contracting compulsory health insurance for them. Moreover, the accord provides the Nepali workers rights and the legal status to fight against attempts to encroach upon their entitlements.

The most important part of the agreement has been that it seeks to prevent improper practices and deceptive tricks by the private manpower agencies that tend to exploit the workers by demanding exaggerated fees, while providing false information about their working conditions in the host country. According to Minister for Labour of the UAE, Dr. Ali Bin Abdulla Al Kabbi, the deal confirms the importance of the supply and recruitment of the Nepali labour force on a firm foundation in accordance with the laws and regulations in force in both the countries. The positive aspect of the agreement has been that it defines manpower as temporary workers intended to be employed for a specified period of time as per the work contracts and indicates the rights and obligations of the employees and employers. As has been mentioned by the authorities of both the countries, the accord constitutes a milestone in protecting the rights and entitlements of the Nepali workers. Since the trend of the Nepalese people going outside and working there has been consistently on the rise, Nepal should seek to agree upon and sign similar accords with other countries including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and so on. What matters significantly is not so much the signing of the accords as their implementation in the real sense of the terms.

Source: The Rising Nepal, July 5, 2007