In its proposed 'Working modality for domestic migrant workers, 2015', the government has set a new age bar of 25 years for female migrant workers headed for the Gulf countries, Lebanon or Malaysia.
"Aspirant female migrants must be 25 years of age in order to work as domestics," reads the proposed working modality.
Stating that Nepali women are subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of violence due to lack of proper monitoring mechanisms, the government back in 2012 imposed an age bar on females seeking to work as domestics in the Gulf countries. However, this did not have the desired impact. Thousands of women continue to reach their destination countries via illegal routes, mainly through India. Also, a surprising number of women used forged hand-written passports, changing their date of birth just to meet the age criteria set by the government.
The government, in its proposed working modality, has not mentioned any minimum salary for domestic workers. In response to a question about this, State Minister for Labor Tek Bahadur Gurung informed that the government would work out memorandums of understanding (MoU) with the destination countries, setting out a salary standard for domestic workers.
"We want our domestic workers to get a minimum salary as per the labor laws of the respective destination countries, which means the salary should be equal to the salary of general workers," said Gurung.
He added that it might take up to two years for the government to sign separate labor agreements for sending domestic workers abroad.
Earlier, the government had said that it will put forth conditions such as establishing recreational centers for migrant workers, payment of monthly salary via banks, zero-cost recruitment, standard working hours, a salary of 300 US dollars per month, access to information, and privacy for the workers.
Likewise, the proposed modality, once enacted, will have a mandatory provision on recruiting domestic workers for the Gulf countries through foreign employment agencies that are listed by the government. Earlier, women could travel to destination countries in response to individual job demands as well, which experts say is one reason for the rise of fraud in foreign employment.
Once this working modality comes into effect, it will replace the existing working modality of 2009. The new modality is currently at the Social Committee of the Couoncil of Ministers awaiting final approval.
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