The National Trade Union Centers - General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), All Nepal Trade Union Federation. (ANTUF) and Nepal Trade Union Congress Independent (NTUCI) were signatories of the agreement together with the Employers´ Organizations- the FNCCI and Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI). The Labour Act 1992 states that minimum wage of the workers is normally reviewed every two years. This agreement has been carried out on this behest. This agreement increased almost 33 percent of workers’ salary, which is highest increment in this decade. The Agreement also ensures the Social Protection to all irregular workers, the right in demand since the establishment of multi-party democratic system in Nepal.
Till date, only few workers with "permanent status" are entitled to get some of the benefits of social protection such as sickness benefit, provident fund, and paid-leave among others. The "irregular" workers ranging from temporary/casual/contract etc to outsource, have always been denied such facilities. In order to provide such facilities to the workers indiscriminately, the trade unions in Nepal have been demanding that all those workers who have worked for more than 240 days should be given permanent status. This Agreement has paved the way to bring all workers working at various enterprises under said safety-nets, no matter whether they are working on permanent basis or on other ´irregular´ terms.
The Social Security System which is an internationally accepted practice lined as of ILO Convention No 102 has provisioned benefits under nine key headings such as unemployment benefit, medical care, sickness benefit, old-age benefit, employment injury benefit, family benefit, maternity benefit, disability benefit, and survivors´ benefit.
They even asked to scrap the agreement and burnt the effigies of some the signatories of the agreement. By overshadowing hard- facts, surprisingly, they desperately tried to create much confusion, spreading misleading rumors.
The rate of contribution in the Social Security Fund will be, no doubt, higher for the employers and government compared to the workers. According to the Agreement; 20 percent of the basic-salary will be contributed by the employers, in addition to increased wage (Rs 1500) and trade unions are demanding similar contribution from the government as well.
Worker liability has been limited to their existing contribution- one percent, as the social security tax and the 10 percent for the provident fund. However, till today, the 10 percent contribution by workers and their employers has been enjoyed only by the permanent staff; now onwards, this will be applicable to all workers including daily wages, piece-rate, contract etc.
Through this provision, the workers will get various facilities which will be based on the amount of their contributed money. However, for this we need enactment of Social Security Act, which is in pipeline. The Act will guide to design various schemes and benefits, its financing and the liabilities as well. Principally agreed point is- the operation and management of the Social Security Fund will be done by a tripartite Board consisting of the representatives of Trade Unions, Employers and Government, the process for which has been initiated with the government issuing the regulation concerning the issues.
However, this could be a bone of contention as some have already called it ‘a mere populist slogan and not a practical proposal!’ The contribution of "three party" would be "drop-in-the-ocean" compared to the schemes as provisioned in ILO Convention No 102!"
Let us assume that if average basic salary of a worker is Rs 3,100 and daily wage is Rs 119 only, then the yearly collection of social security fund of total 2 million workers is Rs. 37,944,000,000. Even if the government contribution is "nil" the fund will have Rs. 23,064,000,000. If we collect contribution of three parties covering only 500,000 workers, the sum will be Rs. 5,766,000,000. If we cover 500,000 daily wage earners, the sum will be Rs. 9,486,000,000. In this way, through the joint contribution of all the three parties, the fund of the social security will be much higher.
The employers have accepted the collective agreement as a "win-win" deal. Thus, this agreement is praised by the entire employers as "historic" which was further highlighted during recently held AGM of the employers´ Apex body- the FNCCI. The prime minister lauded it in similar fashion on that occasion.
However, this agreement has been questioned and some workers in Sunsari-Morang corridor and Pathalaiya- Birgunj corridor have denied running their workplace for few days. They even asked to scrap the agreement and burnt the effigies of some the signatories of the agreement. By overshadowing hard- facts, surprisingly, they desperately tried to create much confusion, spreading misleading rumors.
The allegations made were not just false but misleading as well. The wage has been increased by Rs1,500 across the board. Compared to previous two increments by Rs 740 and Rs 1300 in the year 2006 and 2008 respectively, this increment is the highest so far. Likewise, daily wage is increased by Rs 226 from Rs125 of 2006 and Rs 190 in 2009 in which 20 percent of the basic salary will be added by the employers themselves.
The next false allegation is relating to time-bound wage revision. The existing legal provision has been kept as it is, further proposal of creation of ´permanent wage board´ has been recommended. This agreement does not put any restriction on Collective Bargaining Agreement as per Article 74 of Labor Act 1992. If anything the agreement proposes to restrict the illegal strikes in order to create an enabling atmosphere to work. The Agreement has, thus, committed to declare the next four years as the year for ´Industrial Peace´.
The Agreement, however, has not touched on the rights enshrined in Article 76 of Labor Act, 1992 to conduct the legal strikes in connection with CBA at enterprises.
Contrary to the misunderstanding, the Agreement also does not allow any employers to "fire" its employees indiscriminately without a valid reason. And it has not endorsed any clause such as infamous "No Work-No Pay!" It is true that the Agreement alarms workers ´not to walk out during the duty-time´ in the agendas of any political parties or groups who sometimes have been forcing them. The Agreement also incorporates bi-partite commitments; the terms related to responsibility of the employers and points of discipline related to the workers.
As mentioned earlier, this agreement was made between the employers’ apex bodies- and all authentic, authorized National Trade Union Centers which have been registered in Department of Labor. It is true that there are few "political groupings" existing in the name of trade unions, which are neither properly registered nor have memberships based on the workplace. Such "groups" or the "political factions" do not represent any worker, whose existence rest only on their party affiliation. Since they do not have members in workplace, for whom will they bargain? Thus, it is out-of- context to incorporate these groups as a part of a formal negotiating panel. Therefore, authorities cannot legally endorse any "agreement" signed between such ´parties´ and employers.
In my opinion, those who are making ´noise´ and in the "campaign against agreement", are not even real workers. Some of them are local thugs pampered by the employers who were against the social safety-nets for irregular workers, particularly and some are henchmen of some political outfits, who were misguiding people to meet their vested motives.
As a result of this, some of the members of major trade union centers are worried about the disaster the Agreement could result into, if the government does not endorse it. But majority of them question- why is it that the workers of just two places are showing grievances against the agreement, while the rest welcome it?
Writer is a member of the Constituent Assembly and the president of GEFONT
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