The Department of Labour has recently asked for details about foreign staff from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), GIZ Nepal and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through the Association of International NGOs in Nepal. The department has also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to correspond with all the diplomatic missions in Nepal to provide information about employees who do not enjoy diplomatic privilege.
The department also asked the National Sports Council to submit information about foreign sportspersons in Nepal. The department has been preparing a list of multinational companies in Nepal to obtain details about their foreign workers.
“We will soon ask all the multinational companies in Nepal to come up with details about their foreign workers with or without a work permit,” said Man Bahadur BK, director general of the department and coordinator of the Non-Nepali Employee Monitoring Committee formed to scrutinize organisations employing foreigners.
Currently, the committee has been compiling information about foreign workers employed by organisations including details like legal status, visa type, date of issue and validity of work permit, nationality and designation. However, only a few institutions have submitted details about their foreign workers even though it has been more than two weeks since the department asked them to do so.
The Labour Department will be meeting with officials of the concerned ministries and other government bodies on Thursday to formulate an action plan to move against organisations employing foreigners illegally.
A department official and member of the committee Bhim Prasad Bhattarai said, “We have invited officials from the Nepal Electricity Authority, Nepal Rastra Bank, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Department of Education, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Immigration Department, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the meeting.”
Even though it is part of the department’s job description to check the legal status of foreign workers, the government has formed a committee to strictly impose the work permit system. “We will start field monitoring as soon as we complete the action plan,” said BK.
There are an estimated 50,000 foreigners working in Nepal illegally in different sectors such as NGOs, INGOs, diplomatic missions, hydro power, construction, banking, telecom, airlines, hospitality and educational institutions. Bhattarai said that the Labour Act 1992 has clearly made it mandatory for foreigners coming to Nepal to work to get a labour permit. However, the law has not been implemented effectively due to negligence of the government, lack of staff at the department and lack of coordination between ministries and the offices under them.
Based on the act, the department grants permission to employers to hire foreign workers for a maximum period of five years. The term can be extended up to seven years if the post requires technical skills and Nepalis are hard to find for the specific job.
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