The government has planned to hike the salary that Nepali workers must receive on joining Qatari jobs to make it equal to salaries offered by other countries in the Gulf region. The Ministry of Labour and Transport Management has been working on it. 

The ministry has been planning to hike worker salary in Qatar, said spokesperson at the ministry Buddi Bahadur Khadka. “The new salary will be about Qatari Riyal (QR) 1,000 including QR 200 for food,” he said, adding that the salary in Gulf countries will not be below Rs 20,000 per month hereafter. 

The Nepali diplomatic mission in Qatar had suggested the government to hike the salary about a year back. Former ambassador Suryanath Mishra had written that the hike must be about QR 800 excluding food allowance. However, the suggestion was not enforced earlier due to opposition from outsourcing agencies. 

However, this time the outsourcing agencies have been asking for at least three months time to prepare to enforce the new salary. It will be enforced once it is published in the Nepal Gazette. The procedure may be simplified to respect the voices of outsourcing agencies. 

The government has set a minimum salary in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The average salary enforced in all foreign countries is above Rs 20,000. The government had hiked the salary of UAE bound Nepali workers three months back from Emirati Dirham 800 to 1,000. According to the salary ratio, Gulf countries are now less lucrative than Malaysia, because the Malaysian government has increased the minimum wage from Malaysian Ringgit 546 to 900 since January 1, 2013. At this rate, a worker in Malaysia earns about Rs 26,000 a month. 

The recent salary hike in Malaysia has attracted workers to the South East Asian destination. Outsourcing agencies have been facing a shortage of workers for the Gulf. “Outsourcing agencies are not getting workers for the Gulf but Malaysian demands are attracting hundreds,” said president of Nepal Association of Outsourcing Agencies Bal Bahadur Tamang. About 500,000 Nepalis have been working in Malaysia and more than 63,233 reached the destination in the first five months of the current fiscal year. 

Gulf countries are the major job market for Nepalis. More than two million people are working in six countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. There are also a large number of undocumented workers in Gulf countries.

Published on: 17 January 2013 | The Himalayan Times