Citing financial problems due to the ongoing global economic meltdown, the multinational builder informed Katwal last week about the impending layoff of the workers.
“I will try my best to re-adjust the workers at another company there. If I fail in my attempts, they have no option but to return to Nepal,” said Katwal.
The ongoing global financial crisis has hit many key labor destinations including the UAE hard, sparking huge layoffs of migrant workers in recent months and an exodus back to their home countries.
In a first case of job loss, a total of 84 Nepali workers were laid off last November by Evergreen Heavy Industrial Corporation, a metal container manufacturer based in Johar, Malaysia, citing a fall in overseas business.
In the latest in a series of job losses, four Nepali workers were sent back on Feb. 21 after the employer --General Labels and Labeling Company of Malaysia –handed them pink slips. The reason was of course the deepening financial crisis that has been causing a slowdown in economic activities like construction, manufacturing and tourism, among others.
Though hundreds of Nepali workers are thought to have lost their jobs in different countries over the last couple of months, the government has no exact data on the returnees.
Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) records show that a total of 136 workers have returned from different job destinations—mainly Malaysia and the UAE, whose economies were the worst affected by the crisis.
“However, the number of overseas workers now out of work could be higher than what our record shows, as not all those affected report to us for compensation,” Bed Prasad Lekhak, director of DoFE, told myrepublica.com.
Foreign employment agents put the number much higher that the government records.
“We have noticed that more than 500 Nepali workers have returned from different job destinations after facing termination of their labor contract by employers who have been facing a tough time in recent days,” said Som Lal Bataju, vice president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA).
But the number may be much higher than estimated by the foreign employment agencies due to lack of any record-keeping on the part of recruiting agents in Nepal.
Malaysia announced last month that it is no longer to recruit foreign workers for the manufacturing and service sectors. The UAE, where the foreign workforce makes up about 90 percent of the population, has already decided to reduce migrant workers by at least 45 percent.
The numbers of Nepali overseas workers going to Malaysia and the UAE have dropped to 28,722 and 19,843 respectively during the first seven months of 2008/09 from 29,747 and 25,033, last year.
A recent survey by Real Opinions-- the market research company-- shows that 25 percent of expatriate employees in the UAE have either lost their jobs or fear they will over the coming 12 months.
“We expect more layoff of foreign workers during March - when most of the labor destination countries will roll out annual budgets with new announcements on downsizing the foreign workforce,” said Bataju.
The government has provided compensation through the Foreign Employment Promotion Board and DoEP to 62 and 22 workers respectively.
The government and NAFEA last month decided to provide compensation to workers who lost their jobs before the completion of their work contracts.
As per the decision, 40 percent of the total money spent by workers to get their jobs will be compensated by the government and the manpower agency concerned if they are laid off within six months of their recruitment. In case of job loss between six months and one year, 25 percent of the total cost will be provided as compensation.
In the worst-case scenario, the International Labor Organization says that 22.3 million jobs will be lost in 2009, pushing the job losses to 50 million for the entire period of 2007-2009. It forecasts that in 2009 there will be between 97 and 113 million people unemployed in Asia.
If the ILO projection is anything to go by, there are hard times ahead for labor exporting countries like Nepal where remittances make up a significant chunk of the Gross Domestic Product. Nepal received more than Rs 94 billion as remittance during the first six months of the current fiscal year, 2008/09.
“If a mass return of Nepali migrant workers is triggered, it will create social unrest in the country due to lack of employment opportunities for the returnees and the new work force entering the job market every year in hundreds of thousands,” said Ganesh Gurung, a researcher on migration issues. “Coming days are bound to be full of bad news for migrant workers if the key labor host countries continue to witness contraction of their economies.”
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