A delegation of MoFA employees met with Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala and requested the latter to halt the process of appointing new labor attaches in seven labor destinations as proposed by the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM).
“The MoFA staffers are working in different labor destinations for the last many years and are dealing with labor issues. But MoLTM has appointed its employees, who don’t have much idea on labor issues, as labor attaches,” a second-class officer at MoFA told Republica. “We demand the government to annul the process of selecting new labor attaches.”
As per the Labor Act 2007, the government has to appoint labor attaches in countries where Nepali workers number more than 5,000.
The officer, who attended the meeting with Minister Koirala, said the practice of appointing persons from outside the diplomatic service is creating further problems as they are not capable to deal with labor issues due to inadequate knowledge about diplomatic service and labor issues.
“We are not against sending labor attaches. We are only against the practice of appointing labor attaches from outside the diplomatic service. This is an encroachment of MoFA’s jurisdiction as our service is entirely meant for diplomatic issues,” the official said, preferring anonymity. He also said Minister Koirala has assured them of raising the issue with MoLTM officials.
However, officials at the MoLTM said the appointment of labor attaches was made as per the government decision of appointing employees under general administration service as labor attaches.
Purna Chandra Bhattrai, joint secretary at the MoLTM, said employees of MoLTM were appointed as labor attaches as they have been dealing with labor issues for years. Labor attaches are positions like special envoys, consular general and military attaches and appointments to these positions should not be necessarily from diplomatic service, he maintained.
“It will be impractical for MoFA to deal with labor issues as these have been handled by MoLTM so far,” Bhattarai added. “We have appointed labor attaches to lessen the burden of Nepali missions which are running under minimum human resources. This should not be understood as encroachment of MoFA’s jurisdiction.”
Countries like Sri Lanka and the Philippines have also appointed employees from outside the diplomatic service as labor attaches.
Opposing the MoFA officials’ lobbying to halt the appointment of new labor attaches, another MoLTM official asked the government to bring Department of Foreign Employment under the jurisdiction of MoFA instead.
“We have realized that three out of four labor attaches appointed a few months ago were inexperienced in labor issues. We are committed to correct such mistakes by amending existing regulations,” the official added.
MoLTM recently sought consent of MoFA to appoint labor attaches in seven more destinations -- Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Israel, Hong Kong, Bahrain and Oman. Of the seven destinations, South Korea and Bahrain have signed labor agreement with Nepal, while the number of female workers is more than male in Kuwait.
The government will appoint under secretary level officers for Japan and South Korea, while section officers will be deployed in other five countries. The government has already appointed labor attaches in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
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