The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has prepared a draft of the Foreign Employment Amendment Bill. The draft of the bill has been prepared to make foreign employment safe, dignified and orderly, by removing the provisions for promoting foreign employment business and protecting the rights and interests of foreign employment professionals from the Foreign Employment Act, 2064.

  The draft of the

bill has made the application verification process to be done by the Nepali embassy for the recruitment of Nepali workers flexible by the employer company. The draft states that if the manpower company does not decide whether to verify the demand within 15 days of the application through the foreign employment information management system, the embassy will be in charge of verifying the demand. 

It is also proposed to not take approval from the Foreign Employment Department after the demand letter has been verified. It is mentioned in the draft that the verification of the demand letter of the countries without Nepali embassy will be done directly by the foreign employment department. In the existing law, there is a provision that the foreign employment department cannot give approval until the demand letter is verified by the embassy.

Former Ambassador Udayaraj Pandey says that it is necessary to maintain the system of having the demand letter certified by the embassy or non-paid consul general who has the right to co-certify. If the request cannot be verified within 15 days, a reasonable reason should be sought from the embassy. The embassy should be made more responsible," he says. "When the request is not verified within 15 days, the embassy will become weak if it is automatically verified." In 2075, the government added through an amendment to the Act saying that if the shares of a single-family family are in more than one organization, fraud on the workers may increase. 

In the proposed bill, a provision has been added that if a language is required for workers to obtain a foreign employment permit, a certificate of passing the language test is required. It has also been arranged that the department will prohibit the manpower company from sending workers if the position, nature of work, scope of work, salary and other service facilities are different.

It is also mentioned in the draft that 6 months of training should be done by the National Vocational Training Institute for workers going to foreign employment. It has been proposed that the worker himself be responsible for the authenticity of the documents submitted by the workers going to foreign employment. It is also mentioned in the draft that the Chief District Officer can monitor and take action on the complaint of personal fraud according to the Civil Code of Criminal Procedure-2074. 

Som Luintel, an expert in labor law, says that it is important to address the problem of access to justice rather than systemic issues for those who have been defrauded during foreign employment. "Right now, the problem is more about the access to justice than the system," he says. A separate bench should be kept to hear the case of foreign employment in the High Court.' The Foreign Employment Tribunal has been looking into cases of personal fraud that have not been reconciled. It is mentioned in the draft that the manpower company that does not provide details and records within three days during monitoring and inspection by the department may be suspended for three months and fined up to 50,000.

According to the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security Sharatsingh Bhandari, a new system is about to be added as there is no clear system on how the department will take action against manpower companies that do not cooperate in the monitoring work. 

Manpower companies who are not satisfied with the action of the department can appeal to the Foreign Employment Tribunal within 35 days. In the existing law, there is a provision to appeal to the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security. In the past, the manpower company approached the Ministry of Labor for appeal in some of the actions taken by the Foreign Employment Department and even reversed the decision. Now it is sought to be brought to court. Luintel, an expert in labor law, considers this to be positive. "It controls the influence at the political level," he says.

The provisions of the existing law, which can be re-authorized only twice, are also about to be amended. In the draft of the bill, there is a provision that permission can be obtained from the embassy more than twice. In the current law, there is a provision to have term life insurance through private insurance companies. By removing it in the proposed bill, it is said that the insurance amount will be deposited in the welfare fund. If this is implemented, the workers' welfare fund will be strengthened.

The proposed bill has also increased the scope of use and operation of the Foreign Employment Welfare Fund. It is mentioned in the draft that financial assistance will be provided in case of death due to the same reason while undergoing treatment in the destination country due to amputation or serious illness, and financial assistance will be provided in case of death within the contract period of the worker who came to Nepal on vacation. The existing Act does not mention such a subject, so that dependent families have been deprived of relief and compensation in cases other than death abroad within the contract period. They are not able to get compensation even from the insurance company.

Provisions have been made in the proposed bill to provide treatment and financial assistance to female workers who have been subjected to any kind of sexual abuse or violence while they are employed abroad, who have been pregnant, who have returned with minor children, and who have problems related to sexual and reproductive health. It is also mentioned in the draft that scholarships will be provided to the children of children who are stranded abroad, sick and disabled, comatose, and in prison. In the existing law, there is a provision to give educational scholarships only to the families of deceased workers.