KATHMANDU, April 30: The mandatory requirement for licensed manpower companies to send at least 100 workers abroad annually has been removed. This provision, along with several others, was amended during the revision of the Foreign Employment Act.
On April 2, 2019, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, and Social Security amended the Foreign Employment Act to introduce a provision that would cancel the licenses of manpower companies that failed to send at least 100 workers annually for two consecutive years. In response, manpower business operators protested and lobbied for the removal of this provision.
The provision was amended through the "Bill to Amend Some Nepal Acts." This bill, which includes changes to the Foreign Employment Act and other laws, was passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
In coordination with the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs, the Ministry of Labor proposed an amendment to the "Some Nepal Acts Amendment Bill, 2080" on May 9, 2023. The amendment sought to remove the provision that required manpower companies to send at least 100 workers annually. Following this, the House of Representatives passed the bill.
Provision of two-year labor permit for foreign employment remov...
The Ministry of Labor presented the amendment to the parliamentary committee. Rajendra Bhandari, the former president of the Nepal Foreign Employment Entrepreneurs Association, informed that the committee unanimously approved the amendment. Although the House of Representatives passed the bill, it does not include the issue. However, Bhandari noted that since the committee had unanimously approved the amendment, the issue was not included in the final bill.
The amendments to the Foreign Employment Act now require manpower companies to publish advertisements for worker selection in national daily newspapers and on their websites. Companies must also conduct skill-based training for up to six months through the National Vocational and Skill Development Training Center and impose a fine of 50,000 rupees per person based on the number of affected workers. After detailed discussions, the bill will now be presented in the National Assembly.
Since the Ministry of Labor introduced the provision, it has renewed the licenses of manpower companies that failed to send 100 workers, aiming to eliminate obstacles. In the last fiscal year, the Ministry of Labour used its authority to remove these obstacles and renewed the licenses of 258 manpower companies for the final time.
Amendments to Section 16 of the Act now require license holders with prior approval to provide at least a seven-day period for worker selection and to publish advertisements in a national daily newspaper in Nepali and on their website. They must also submit the advertisement notice to the department on the same day for publication on the department's website.
Similarly, the amendment to Section 30 changes the phrase "less than six months" to "up to six months" and replaces "Vocational and Skill Development Training Institute" with "National Vocational Training Institute."
In Section 53, the new amendment states that license holders will face a fine of 50,000 rupees per person based on the number of affected workers sent for foreign employment, replacing the previous fine of 100,000 rupees per person. Additionally, Section 73 now allows the option to maintain a labor desk, replacing the previous requirement to do so.
