Yadav Raj Joshi

Nepalis working in South Korea under Employment Permit System (EPS) are earning over Rs 9 billion and sending home half of the money as remittance in a year.

Around 8,500 Nepali blue-collar workers in South Korea are earning Rs 96,250 per month each that includes overtime and other benefits currently. As EPS worker earns Rs 96,250 per month, making it to a total of Rs 9.81 billion of 8,500 workers in a year. “EPS workers earn around Rs 100,000 including overtime and other benefits”, head of EPS Nepal Mahesh Acharya said, adding that an EPS employee gets two-hour overtime and paid leave under South Korean labour laws. Of the total earnings, Nepali workers spend 40 per cent that comes to Rs 3.92 billion in a year. “They also send Rs 5.89 billion in remittance every year,“ he said.

South Korea is among the best destinations, where an unskilled worker earns a minimum salary of Rs 70,000. An EPS employee spends Rs 38,500 for apartment, fooding, clothing, medical and other services while one saves around Rs 57,750 a month, according to an estimate.

The government is managing the EPS recruitment process since August 2008, though the destina tion opened in 2003. But government itself was involved in the process after reports of cheatings and frauds by outsourcing agency Lumbini Overseas that used to charge above Rs 600,000 from a job aspirant then. It used to charge seven times higher service fee compared to current service fee.

EPS Nepal charges $940 (around Rs 65,000) for the process starting from application of Test of Proficiency in Korean that costs $24 (around Rs 1,700) and other costs like language tuition, travel and boarding in the process that adds up to nearly Rs 35,000. A job aspirant is spending around Rs 80,000 for a job in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar where they earn less than $250 (around Rs 18,000).

Not only youths but also government is finding it more lucrative.“We have major focus on South Korea because of higher salary and safety of Nepali migrant workers,“ said joint secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management Purna Chandra Bhattrai.

The government has expedited EPS process since 2010. EPS Nepal, along with Human Resource Department of South Korea, has already conducted two Korean language tests from nearly 1,00,000 job aspirants and sent 5,500 Nepalis to the destination in last two years.

Published on: 18 May 2011 | The Himalayan Times