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Kathmandu Wednesday February 27, 2002 Falgun 15, 2058.
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New Labour Act draft scrapped
Businessmen, trade unions agree to amend existing Act
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Feb 26 : The business community and the trade
unions have rejected to discuss on the draft of the new Labour Act that the government
prepared recently under pressure of the two warring sides.
The new Act was floated by the government for discussion last
week in pursuant of its announced policy to protecting the rights of workers as well as
making the labour regime more flexible to ensure an enabling environment to businesses,
but only to be rejected outright by both sides.
Both the employers (business community) and employees (trade
unions) claimed that the new Act was unclear, ambiguous and failed to protect their
respective rights.
"The New Act is not only ambiguous but is also critical
and lacks clarity," Rajendra Kumar Khetan, former Chairman of the Employers’
Council, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said.
Similarly, Bishnu Rimal, General Secretary of General
Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (Gefont), said, ""The draft of the New
Labour Act violates the ILO’s convention by excluding the tripartite norms, so there
was no point in discussing over it."
Instead, now a sub-committee constituted under the Central
Labour Advisory Committee, a tripartite group representing all the stakeholders including
the government, employers and trade unions, have agreed to sort out the shortcomings of
the governing Labour Act 1991 and to amend it, rather than discussing on the newly drafted
Act.
"The stakeholders have formulated the Terms of Reference
(ToR) to look into the matter and programmes regarding the same will be executed from this
week," said Lalit Bahadur Thapa, co-ordinator of the sub-committee and also the
Director General of Department of Labour and Employment Promotion (DoLEP).
According to the ToR, the sub-committee will discuss over the
grievances over the articles and clauses of the existing regulations and downsize the
issues for debate and alteration. Inter alia, the sub-committee will also take care to
observe the impact of the recommended changes on other governing regulations.
"The changes recommended might effect other governing
labour laws, especially Trade Union Act and Bonus Act. Any confusion that might arise will
be sorted out and recommendations on then will be made in the final report drafted by the
sub-committee," said Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, member of the sub-committee, talking to The
Kathmandu Post.
The report will clarify the on contentious issues like hire
and fire, which the employers have been demanding since long, at the workers’ unease.
The government so far, allege the business community, has not taken the issue responsibly.
Meanwhile, experts urge the government to adopt a clear-cut
labour policy to boost up productivity prior to bringing any changes in the Act. "The
government in fact needs to refine the labour policy itself, as amendment of act cannot be
achieved in the desired line unless a clear vision is adopted," they opined.
Changes in the Act and Regulations alone will not yield
positive and sustainable results, if the underlying policy is unclear. Without policy
clarification foreign investment and national productivity can never be increased, they
viewed.
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