Nepal inks labour pact with Japan

Nepal and Japan have signed a labour agreement under which migrant workers from the Himalayan kingdom will be employed in the far east nation in 14 sectors, including industrial, nursing, construction and sanitation.

The pact was signed on Monday by Ram Prasad Dahal, acting Secretary in the Labour Ministry, and Masamichi Saigo, Japanese Ambassador to Nepal.

The agreement will come into effect from April 1.

As per the deal, a separate unit under the Department of Foreign Employment will be set up in coordination with the Japan government. The new body will work on the modality of recruitment of Nepali workers by Japanese employers.

Both the governments will form a joint technical team that will finalise the number of workers to be recruited and the process of their recruitment, officials said.

The new unit will also finalise the benefits to be granted to workers. However, the cost a worker needs to bear to go to Japan is still under discussion. As per ministry officials, Nepal has requested Japan to allow Nepali workers to enter its job market at zero cost.

Under the agreement, the Japanese government will hire Nepali migrant workers in care-giving, building cleaning management, machine parts and tooling, industrial machinery, electric, electronic, information and construction industries, officials said.

The workers will also be hired in shipbuilding and ship machinery, automobile repair and maintenance, aviation, accommodation, agriculture, fishery and aquaculture, manufacture of food and beverages and food service industries, they said.

In December last year, the Japanese government had approved a law which allowed Japanese companies to employ blue-collar workers from nine countries, including Nepal.

As per the Japanese plan, a total of 345,150 workers from Nepal, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Mongolia will be employed in the first five years.