SAGAR GHIMIRE

The International Relations and Labor Committee of the legislature-parliament has directed the government to ensure that transactions between manpower companies and aspirant workers are made through banking system.

Concluding that the fees paid by aspirant workers to manpower agencies in cash is fueling malpractices, the committee meeting held on Sunday instructed the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE) to make sure that every monetary transaction with aspiring migrant workers are made through banking channel.

“The committee has asked the ministry to make sure that aspirant workers pay their recruitment fees to manpower companies only through banking channel,” Bhola Prasad Shiwakoti, secretary of MoLE, told Republica. “I will be in a position to tell you how the instruction will be implemented only after going through the written instruction from the committee.”

According to the Foreign Employment Act 2007, financial transaction with workers through banking channel is not legally binding. Experts say that cash transactions have given a leeway to many manpower firms to extort more money from the workers. Clause 24 of the Act states that the worker selected for the foreign employment shall deposit the amount (service charge and promotional costs) as referred to in the contract with the office or in the bank account of the licensed manpower firm and the firm should provide a receipt to the worker after receiving the amount. “Most of the manpower companies have been charging the migrant workers exorbitantly -- twice or thrice the upper limit that the government has fixed -- through their agents.

On one hand, the workers are being cheated while on the other they find it difficult to claim compensation if the terms and conditions of the contract is different in the destination country than what they had been told by the manpower firms,” said Arjun Paudel, chairperson of Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee -- a right-based organization formed by overseas returnees. "Making transaction between the workers and manpower firms through banking system mandatory will reduce the case of cheating.”

The committee has also instructed MoLE to ask manpower agencies to do transaction with local agents of labor receiving countries only through banking channel. "Transactions between manpower companies of Nepal and the local agents in labor receiving countries are done mainly through illegal channels like Hundi. The committee has instructed the government to end such practice immediately," Prabhu Sah, chairman of the committee, told Republica.

Meanwhile, in a bid to get clear picture of the status of manpower firms, the committee has asked the government to furnish details of each and every manpower firms to the committee. “It seems that the anomalies in the manpower sector have grown by leap and bounds. We have instructed the MoLE to submit the details of all manpower companies, including name of promoters, number of workers they have sent and the destinations of workers," Sah said, adding: "We will look into the anomalies after we get all the documents."

Manpower companies say they won´t have any problem conducting transactions through banking channel. "The parliamentary committee´s instruction is positive. There, however, are some practical problems," Tanka Raut, first vice president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies, told Republica. "Our government has not revised the recruitment charge ceiling for Malaysia in line with the rising value of Ringgit. Similarly, flight ticket price and other costs are also going up.”

The government has allowed manpower firms to collect a maximum of Rs 80,000 from workers heading to Malaysia. However, manpower firms are charging as high as Rs 100,000 per worker.

Published on: 10 November 2014 | Republica