Only specified unions to be allowed: Govt., Unions warn of stir
Amending the existing Civil Service Act, the government has said it will not allow government employees unions in the country except those that are approved by it.
Addressing a press meet in the capital, Kathmandu, Monday, royal-appointed Minister of General Administration Krishna Lal Thakali said the present government would not allow the civil servants to work as ‘trade unions or sister organisations’ of the political parties. We will, however, allow specified unions to operate, the minister said. He did not elaborate.
Critics said the second amendment to the 13-year-old Civil Service Act 2049 B. S. –that was enforced through an ordinance last week-- has been designed to exercise total control over the bureaucracy and make civil servants submit to the new regime.
Said former Secretary Dr. Bhola Nath Chalise, “”The ordinance seems to be aiming at taking the country’s bureaucracy to stone age.”
Meanwhile, the government employees unions have warned that they will launch agitation against the government’s decision. Talking to Nepalnews, president of Nepal Nijamati Karmachari Sangathan (NNKS)—the largest union of civil servants in the country, Murari Bhattarai said the government employees were able to exercise their right to form union through 15-year-long struggle and that it can’t be brought down ‘like a house of cards’ overnight.
‘We have got around 50,000 civil servants as our members and many more are well-wishers. The government’s decision (to ban employees’ unions) is against the country’s constitution, Supreme Court’s verdict as well as against the UN and ILO conventions to which Nepal is a party,” said Bhattarai. Now, we have got no option left than to agitate, he warned.
Minister Thakali, however, defended the government’s decision saying that government employees were not laborers as defined by the ILO. “They are part of a permanent government. How can they be treated as ‘sramik’ (workers)?’ he asked.
The Minister, who held the same portfolio in the sacked Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government, said that the government was not bound to follow the recommendation made by Public Service Commission (PSC)—a constitutional body. “They advised us even on issues to which we had never sought advice,” the minister said. He, however, claimed that the government had implemented some 60 percent of the recommendations made by the PSC.
The new ordinance has a provision that allows the government to depute senior level officers to the ‘reserve pool’ for indefinite period while appointing other civil servants to the same post at the same time. Earlier, the Civil Service Act—passed by an elected parliament—had the provision that the government could not send government officials to the ‘reserve pool’ for more than one year.
Responding to a question on whether the present government should take responsibility for the recent suicide of Secretary Dinesh Chandra Pyakurel who was sent to reserve pool by violating existing regulations, Minister Thakali said he did not want to comment on individual issues. He, however, said if that had been the case, Pyakurel could have committed suicide within days of the government’s decision and not wait for several months.
The new ordinance has made revisions in pension related provisions, allows the government to hire lower level workers on a `contract basis,’ and also talks about ‘positive discrimination.’
The ordinance had to be introduced as per the previous government’s commitment for Governance Reform Programme (GRP) while borrowing a loan of USD 30 million from the Asian Development Bank in 2001, the minister said. nepalnews.com by July 19 05
