“We have forwarded the Memorandum of Understanding on labor to Korean government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after the cabinet´s nod to renew the two-year-long pact that expires on July 22,” said a senior official at the MoLTM.
Nepal and Korea had signed the deal on July 23, 2007 to provide Nepalis employment opportunities in Korea in different sectors under EPS. Under the agreement foreign workers are entitled to salaries and benefits at par with Korean counterparts.
Korea, which is employing total 195,000 foreign workers including 2,800 Nepalis, has already signed labor pacts with 15 countries to employ foreign workers under EPS. Under EPS, foreign workers [including Nepali workers] can earn monthly salary of around US$970 to US$ 1000 depending upon the companies they work for.
Under the EPS--Nepali workers between the age of 18 and 39 years can get employment opportunities in Agriculture, fishery, manufacturing, service and construction sectors.
More than 6,500 Nepali blue-collar job aspirants have been selected and names of those job aspirants have been sent to Korea´s Human Resource Department (HRD), which arranges job contracts as per demands by Korean employers.
Korea has suspended from July 10 the fresh intake of foreign workers till August 30 in manufacturing sector saying that quotas for foreign workers in this sector have exhausted. However, workers signing the work contracts for other sectors such as agriculture and fishery have not been affected by the suspension.
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