Governments’ missing visibility in governance has resulted in the failure to finalize one single act to create conducive environment between employers and workers. The absence of explicit policy with sound implementing rules has contributed to such troublesome relationship between them. Such situation has flared up uncertainties in Nepal’s liberalized economic regime.
In Nepal, the informal sector accommodates the bulk of the new work force. The growth of this sector is not merely a temporary phenomenon. According to International Labor Organization (ILO) “there can be no question of the ILO helping to ‘promote’ or ‘develop’ an informal sector as a convenient, low-cost way of creating employment unless there is at the same time an equal determination to eliminate progressively the worst aspects of exploitation and inhuman working conditions in the sector”.
The reason for the growth of informal sector is that the new workforce has not been able to find jobs in the formal economy where they have plenty of difficulties in initiating productive businesses. However, the major concern is the absence of “decent” work environment in the informal economy as compared to the so-called recognized, protected, secure, formal employment.
ILO’s overriding strategic goal is to promote ´Decent Work for All´. Effort has been made to align this strategy with the national, social and economic development priorities. Nepal has reiterated its commitment to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at work place during several international meetings. Ratification of seven ILO Conventions, including Convention No 169 and provision of the freedom to form unions and associations, which has also been guaranteed by Nepal´s Interim Constitution, has ensured the protection of fundamental rights of the people. The development of a National Plan of Action to promote a decent work that ensures work freedom, equity, security and dignity in the work environment can be expected to improve working conditions and productivity.
In the Least Developed Countries, where many people have not benefited from globalization, decent work should be at the heart of social, economic and development cooperation policies at the national, regional and international levels. Addressing such a global problem is to ensure benefits of globalization to all by reducing poverty and promoting social exclusion. The first step of reform at the domestic front should begin with social protection such as welfare packages including health, unemployment and other public utilities to the citizens. Such packages can surely contribute to lower crime rate and social unrests.
The big question in new Nepal is whether we are ready to accept the fact that the state must be an essential player in the proposed three-pillar economic model, not eager to disturb free interaction of social agents, but one that acts as guarantor of solidarity in defense of the general interest.
In Nepal, the legal provision regarding registration, operation of trade union and other necessary provisions for the protection and promotion of professional and occupational rights of the workers, and self-employed workers is guaranteed by the Trade Union (First Amendment) Act, 2055. The fundamental responsibility of these unions is to preserve employees´ rights, negotiate with employers to ensure due benefits to workers. However, union’s role has, most of the times, come under considerable controversy. The problem arises when the demands revolve around raising wages and other cost-related issues by the members without considering their productivity and firm´s profitability. In Nepal, union demands do not always rest on job and security related issue but are highly influenced by political purposes, since most of the unions are the sister organizations of the major political parties.
Although the legislation denies the right to strike to employees engaged in essential services, the assessment of recent years shows strikes being organized everywhere (water supply, electricity, road, air and sea transport, the print industry, the government, press, and hotels and restaurants) by going against the ILO mandate and by violating the definition of essential services. Greater degree of civil disobedience and fragile governance has made the organizations a mute spectator.
Undoubtedly, Nepal needs growth–oriented policies that generate mass employment since its slow growth rates could not increase wage rates and correct worsening income and expenditure distributions. A recent publication from the Asian Development Bank states that in 1990s each percentage-point increase in economic growth created fewer jobs than a decade earlier in many countries in South Asia. The labor market policies are not necessarily the right explanation for the widespread unemployment. Therefore, there is a need for well-designed reforms that target particular policies for employment creation. For example, the policy should be formulated keeping in view the comprehensive linkages between the effect of unemployment policy on productive growth; demand management versus supply-side policy and other relevant issues, including restructuring labor market regulations to make it able to deal with emerging challenges.
The role of the state in the world, which had always been regarded as that of custodian of common goods, protector of the weakest or most vulnerable sectors of the population, as agent of change and economic development has gradually become subsidiary. Neo-liberal ideology recommends market to act and develop without the impediments of the previous economic framework, which was characterized by state intervention. Recent global economic crisis and the transnationalization of capital and the opening of markets have created such consequences, which are not in workers’ favor. The existing impediments include employment instability, low wages, exhausting work days, and uncertainty or loss of social benefits such as retirement and health care. An employment policy is essentially a governmental responsibility, but employers, as providers of employment, and workers, as direct beneficiaries, must actively take part in these processes.
Nepal’s prolonged political instability and successive governments’ weakening image necessitates a key role of the public sector in facilitating dialogue between the state, the private sector, and civil society organizations to identify problems and develop a policy for a long-term solution. The issues in decent work have been emphasized heavily because the growth and sustainability of economic system requires strong and cordial labor relations. After recent all-party consensus to pursue three-pillar economic system comprising public sector, private sector and cooperatives, the state is expected to be an essential player in this new economic arrangement. The big question in new Nepal is whether we are ready to accept the fact that the state must be an essential player in this new bond, not eager to disturb free interaction of social agents, but one that acts as guarantor of solidarity in defense of the general interest. An immediate professional discourse is, therefore, needed to develop new ways of working together.
bishwambher@yahoo.com
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