KATHMANDU, July 16: The government's decision to terminate the employment of all salaried, temporary and contract workers and recruit employees through an outsourcing system (Service Contract Management System) will not be implemented immediately. Following an agreement reached between the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and protesting contract workers on Wednesday, the protests have been suspended for the time being.
"There will be a written agreement between us and the Prime Minister's Office tomorrow (Thursday)," said Jitendra Mishra, vice president of the government's Temporary, Contract and Salaried Workers' Committee. "In response to the commitment made by the Prime Minister's administrative advisor, Sudip Dhakal, we have suspended our protests for now."
According to Mishra, the two sides agreed to halt the outsourcing plan, continue the employment of contract, salaried and temporary workers, provide them with a dearness allowance, and enroll them in the Social Security Fund.
It was also agreed that contract, temporary and salaried workers would receive gratuity upon leaving their jobs. However, employees aged 58 and above will not have their employment contracts renewed.
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The contract workers said they suspended their protests after administrative advisor Dhakal spoke with Prime Minister Balendra Shah over the phone and the prime minister made commitments on behalf of the government.
No government official was willing to make a formal statement regarding the agreement with the protesting workers. Officials only said the government was positive toward their demands.
"I am not officially aware of any agreement between the government and the contract employees, but the government is fully positive toward their demands," said Madan Bhujel, secretary at the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration.
After learning that they could be dismissed on July 17, the workers staged protests inside the Singha Durbar premises on Tuesday and Wednesday. They also surrounded the Ministry of Finance. Having left their workplaces to gather at Singha Durbar, they had planned to intensify their protests.
According to sources, Hemraj Aryal, spokesperson and joint secretary at the PMO, also participated in the talks with the protesting workers. However, he could not be reached for comment.
Before the protests, the PMO had been preparing a proposal to remove contract, temporary and salaried workers from federal, provincial and local governments across the country and replace them with workers hired through outsourcing.
The PMO and senior officials from several ministries had held repeated discussions on the proposal, including a meeting on the issue on Tuesday.
The proposal states: "The policy will provide clarity on establishing a public limited company under the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration or outsourcing support and general technical services, including cleaners, office helpers, plumbers, gardeners, mechanics, Office of the Auditor General support staff, microphone operators, light vehicle drivers, assistant computer operators, computer technicians, data entry operators and computer operators."
According to sources, there are currently between 10,000 and 12,000 such workers at the federal level, around 6,000 at the provincial level and approximately 35,000 at the local level.
