The government has been working to fix the minimum salary for migrant workers in a number of labour destinations. The basic pay will be set for job seekers in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the UAE and Qatar which are the largest employers of Nepali workers.

The minimum salary for all these countries will be marked through a joint meeting of multi-stakeholders based on the recommendations made by the Nepali missions abroad. Nepal’s missions in Saudi Arabia and the UAE have submitted their recommendations.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian government has raised the minimum salary by a huge margin. A few days ago, the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak announced a monthly basic salary of 900 ringgits for workers in Peninsular Malaysia and 800 ringgits for those working in Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan regions.

The minimum salary proposed so far is no less than Rs 16,000 monthly for any destination country. The proposed minimum salary for Malaysia is Rs 24,000 per month. Likewise, workers going to Saudi Arabia are likely to get a minimum of Rs 25,000 while the salary for workers in the UAE is likely to be Rs 16,000.

The Nepali mission in the UAE has also asked for food and accommodation allowances. The minimum salary for Qatar was announced around two years ago. The workers there get a minimum of 600 dirham and another 200 dirham as food and accommodation allowances. The proposed minimum wage will be implemented once a minister level meeting okays the proposal.

Director general of the Department of Foreign Employment Purna Chandra Bhattarai said that the decision to fix the minimum salary was an important part of the 10-point direction of the prime minister, 30-point suggestions floated by the Foreign Employment Improvement Committee and 23-point direction of the National Vigilance Centre.

“We have fixed the basic salaries for 10 countries so far. We will fix the minimum salary for all the destination countries. The present salary is not adequate for the workers,” said Bhattarai.

The government has not fixed a minimum salary for any of these countries. However, workers going to Malaysia were getting around 125 dollars. The salary fixed for Malaysia 10 years ago was in use even for other countries like the UAE. 

As per the recommendation made by the Nepali mission in Saudi Arabia, a joint meeting of the stakeholders approved proposing 800 Saudi Arabian riyal as the basic salary plus 200 riyal as food allowance. The proposed salary should be approved through a minister-level meeting.

Low salaries had forced many workers to run away from their work before the end of their contract. Such a risky trend of staying illegally in a foreign land has exposed a large portion of workers to danger. The embassies had cited low salaries as the root of these problems.   

Manpower agencies have also welcomed the move of the government to increase the basic salary. “The provision of fixing the minimum wage is definitely a good move for the workers. However, it may result in a decline in demand for workers,” said Kumud Khanal, general secretary of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.

Published on: 11 May 2012 | The Kathmandu Post