The government has made it mandatory for foreign employment agencies to provide employment contract in Nepali (translated job agreement) to workers being sent by them to international labour destinations. It said job aspirants who fail to furnish their job contracts in Nepali will not be allowed to leave the country now onwards.

In a public notice on Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Employment and the Foreign Employment Promotion Board urged all local recruiting agencies to provide job contracts in Nepali to workers before they leave the country. The notice said workers who do not carry the contract in Nepali language will not be given entry at the Labour Desk at the Tribhuwan International Airport.

Around eight months ago, the department had asked all the agencies to provide the job agreement in Nepali. As per the Foreign Employment Act 2007, it is a must for local recruiting agencies to translate the employment contract sent by overseas employers into Nepali and provide a copy each to the department and the outbound individual.

However, despite the law and request from the department, many agencies have not followed the rules. There are 766 registered agencies that send workers for overseas jobs institutionally.

“Contract in the Nepali language helps prevent workers from being cheated and they know of the realities and the nature of their jobs, salary and other conditions,” said Kashi Raj Dahal, the director at the department. He added that even though some agencies had started to provide such translated contracts, it is necessary that all of them follow the rule to ensure safety of workers, especially those who do not know English.

As a majority of the Nepali workers leave for un-skilled and semi-skilled jobs, they have problems in knowing the English language, according to the department. Some agencies do submit the contract in Nepali to the department, but they do not seem serious about providing a copy to the workers.

Foreign employers wanting to hire Nepalis send employment contracts in English to local recruiting agencies, mentioning the worker’s name, visa, passport number, company information, profession, work hours, salary and facilities of overtime, among other things. Recruiting agencies said some companies, despite having the original agreements in Arabic (Gulf countries) and Malay, also send the contract papers in English.