The Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE) has introduced a provision that has made it mandatory for all aspirant semi-skilled and non-skilled female workers to sign a tri-party agreement at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DoFE).

 

The aspirant female workers should sign an agreement form where her job type, salary and working hours are mentioned. Representatives of recruiting agencies through which they have processed for visa and the DoFE need to sign that agreement as a record. However, this kind of agreement is not necessary for highly skilled and skilled female workers.

 

Stating that female workers who are sent to work as cleaners in foreign companies are being exploited and forced to work as housemaids in Dubai, the MoLE introduced the new rule of three-party agreement.

 

According to Krishna Prasad Dawadi, director at the Kathmandu-based office of the DoFE, the MoLE introduced the three-party agreement with a view of safeguarding Nepali women who go to work as semi-skilled and non-skilled workers in the Gulf countries.

 

"The aspirant female workers who have their visas ready will have to come at the DoFE's Kathmandu-based office and sign the agreement," informed Dawadi.

 

The government has recently imposed ban on sending females as domestic workers to the Gulf countries citing increasing vulnerability, physical abuse and violence against female workers in the destination countries.

 

The authorities at the DoFE agreed that the government has been adopting discriminatory measures time and again toward female migrant workers.

 

Chief of Qatar Section at the DoFE Tara Kunwar told Republica that the recent provision of tri-party agreement is violation of fundamental rights of women.

 

"Either the government should sign bilateral agreement to improve the condition of domestic workers abroad or induce equal policies for both male and female," said Kunwar.

 

Article 8 under the Foreign Employment Act, 2064 and Foreign Employment Regulation, 2064, states that there shouldn't be gender-based discrimination against women on foreign employment.

 

Director Dawadi, who served as a Labor Attachee in Saudi Arabia for three years, further explained that any kind of ban or discriminatory provision is not going to change the trend of violence and victimization of Nepali women during foreign employment. "Signing bilateral agreement and making women trained and skilled are the only ways to improve the situation," he said.

 

Nepal has opened 110 countries for foreign employment but has inked bilateral agreement with only six countries - Japan, South Korea, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain.