Foreign employment orientation: Interim order of the Supreme Court to stop the decision to cancel the procedure for increasing fees

Labor Minister Dol Prasad Aryal decided to abolish the procedure on May 6, saying that the revised procedure has put a financial burden on the workers. According to the revised procedure, there is a provision to collect 28 rupees from workers for orientation training and 700 rupees for examination. According to the old procedures, there was a provision to get 700 rupees.

The then Labor Minister Sharatsingh Bhandari amended the procedure of 2076 to make the training effective on October 7 of last year. According to the revised procedure, new standards regarding manpower and infrastructure were set for the training provider organizations. According to which, in each training class, two 84-inch smart boards (Android 13, RAM 8GB, room HDD 128) should be kept, a computer printer and an iris retina scanning machine (iris scanner) compatible with the department's FAMIS (Foreign Employment Information Management System) are mandatory. And the duration of training was also extended. With this new system, the training fee was increased from 700 to 2100 rupees. After taking the orientation training, an examination was to be given and an additional fee of 700 rupees was fixed for that.

A meeting was held with the stakeholders under the chairmanship of the Labor Secretary on January 12 to implement the new procedure. The meeting decided to 'reduce the number of workers who go to foreign employment to zero without getting all the information related to them through effective orientation training' and issue certificates only by providing mandatory orientation training to the workers. The Department of Foreign Employment had issued a notice that if the manpower and infrastructure are not completed according to the revised procedure by January 5, the work transaction will be suspended. According to the department, 133 institutions have met the criteria.

However, Labor Minister Aryal decided to cancel the new procedure and implement the old procedure saying that the orientation fee was a financial burden on the workers. It is said in the decision of the Ministry to form a committee under the coordination of the head of the Skill Development and Training Branch of the Ministry to make the Orientation Training Operation Procedure-2076 practical and timely to determine the modality of the course and training operation and then make suggestions on matters including fees.

Ministry of Labor spokesperson Gobind Rizal said the Supreme Court's order came while the committee was working. Final preparations are being made by the committee to make recommendations regarding orientation course, modality of training operation and fees. At this time, the order of the Supreme Court has come,' he said, 'now we will proceed after looking at the order.'

President of Nepal Foreign Employment Orientation Business Federation Rajaram Gautam says that the revised new procedure should be implemented to make the orientation effective. Due to the lack of orientation training, some Nepalis who have gone to work abroad have faced various difficulties. Some of them are mutilated and even die," he said. "Infrastructure has been added. This eliminates cheating during orientation training. Effective training if you get to work on new charges. We can't work at the old rates.'