Ministry of Labor Unveils 10-Point Action Plan to Safeguard Worker Rights and Regulate Employment Sector

Kathmandu. The Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security has unveiled a 10-point immediate action plan to protect the rights and welfare of workers and to make the overall employment sector organized, dignified, and secure.

Today, the meeting chaired by Minister Deepak Kumar Shrestha finalized this action plan while discussing the one hundred agendas related to governance reform approved by the Council of Ministers meeting on Chaitra 13.

Minister Shrestha had directed the preparation and immediate implementation of an action plan for the subjects related to this ministry from the agendas approved by the Government of Nepal, in line with the agenda to organize, dignify, and secure the labor and employment sector and protect the rights of workers. Accordingly, the necessary process has been initiated to prepare and implement an action plan immediately on the following matters, including preparing minimum standards for foreign employment by studying the security of Nepali citizens working abroad, ensuring minimum wages, workplace safety, work environment, and occupational health and safety conditions; creating opportunities for employment by providing skill development training to aid job creation; preparing to operate skill fairs in all provinces in collaboration with the private sector; promoting domestic employment; making service delivery client-friendly; controlling fraud committed in the name of foreign employment; and reducing the cost and time of service delivery by integrating service delivery with information technology.

The main action plans and directives set by the Ministry are as follows:

1. Arrange to provide labor permits on the same day of application and end the token system.
2. Produce audio-visual materials based on the pre-departure orientation training curriculum and make them available on digital media.
3. Make the pre-departure orientation training completely based on an online system.
4. Ensure the full implementation of the minimum wage for workers.
5. Launch a campaign to enroll all workers in the contribution-based Social Security Fund by integrating them into the Social Security Fund.
6. Further systematize and make the 'Shramdhan Call Center' more effective by internalizing the Shramdhan plan.
7. Promote occupational health and safety by conducting risk assessments in industrial establishments.
8. Create domestic employment by promoting production and entrepreneurship.
9. Expand bilateral labor agreements with 5 more countries.
10. Identify contemporary reform contents in laws related to the Ministry and move the process forward.