Govt to announce contributory pension for private sector workers

Kathmandu, Nov. 19: The government is set to announce a pension plan for all the workers in the public and private sectors.

Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista said that the government would announce a programme on November 27 to implement the contribution-based pension system to all sectors of work and employment, including the private sector.

"This move is being made to hold Nepali youth in the country and increase respect to the job they hold in the domestic labour market," he said while addressing a programme on 'Towards responsible recruitment'organised under Hamro Samman Project organised by the Winrock International and National Business Initiative (NBI) here on Monday.

According him, the government has completed all preparatory works, including the work procedures and bylaws for the pension for all workers in Nepal and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will announce the plan on November 27.

"Average income of Nepali workers in the Gulf and Malaysia is about Rs. 20,000 a month while a lower rank worker can earn Rs. 16,000 – 17,000 in his own country. As the migrant Nepali workers don't have any social security provisions, pension plan can attract more youth to be employed domestically," said Minister Bista.

He said that the government was also going to announce new employment package through the Prime Minister Employment Programme from the coming fiscal 2019/2020.

According to him, the programme is targeted to create thousands of employment in the country.

Minister Bista criticised the manpower agencies for the continuous commission which they get after sending a migrant worker to a foreign employment.

"We are concerned to the practice of getting commission from a worker till he works in a foreign country. This practice should be stopped both at the domestic and international front," he said.

"Our priority is quality and safe labour market, health and welfare of all the labourers. We have raised this issue as a common agenda of the region, and members of the Colombo Process have accepted it and agreed to take up it during the bilateral talks with the employment destination countries," added the Minister.

According to him, the recruitment and selection of workers should be at zero cost, the process should be transparent and the workers should be provided with sufficient information to enable them to make informed decision.

The government has implemented 'free visa, free ticket' policy since 2015.

Vice President of NBI Kush Kumar Joshi urged the government and private sector to find ways to hold youth in the country and utilise the skills of  the foreign returned workers.

US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry said that about 90 per cent unskilled workers are suffered by some kinds of bondage, coercion and unhealthy environment so the government and recruitment agencies should work together to address those issues.

Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) Deepak Dhakal said that the fair recruitment practice was implemented by the government to facilitate the workers.

Executive Director of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Nara Bahadur Thapa said that the government should work to protect the rights of the Nepali workers abroad as they were the major source of foreign currency income and an agent of social change and poverty reduction.

Nepal earned Rs. 755 billion in remittances in the fiscal year 2017/18.

Hamro Samman is a USAID supported programme which aims at countering trafficking in-person by sharing innovations and global best practices.

The five-year long 8 million US Dollars-project will target twelve districts – Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Dhading, Kailali, Kapilvastu, Kavrepalanchok, Kathmandu, Makwanpur, Nuwakot, Rasuwa and Sindhupalchok – to implement the activities that generate scalable solutions for replication in other districts.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 20 November 2018.