Work has been underway for a decade to draft a labor agreement between Saudi Arabia and Nepal, a major destination for Nepali workers.
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Nepal and Saudi Arabia are signing a labor agreement related to the recruitment of Nepali workers for the first time on Sunday evening in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Rajendra Singh Bhandari has gone to Saudi Arabia leading a three-member team to sign the agreement.
Work on the draft has been underway for a decade to sign a labor agreement between Saudi Arabia and Nepal, a major destination for Nepali workers. The agreement is being signed by Labor Minister Bhandari and his Saudi counterpart, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Ahmed bin Suleiman Al-Rajhi. Al-Rajhi has been leading the Ministry of Human Resources since 2018.
In the last week of May, in Geneva, the then Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Sharat Singh Bhandari and Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister for International Affairs Tariq Al-Hamad agreed to sign a general labor agreement, leaving aside the agreement on domestic workers. The ministry has stated that it will do more homework for the agreement on domestic workers.
The labor agreement aims to provide more opportunities for Nepali workers going to the Saudi labor market, prioritize a transparent recruitment process to protect against human trafficking, and respect the rights of workers and employers.
The Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security has stated that the agreement is being made by prioritizing the labor standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The agreement addresses issues such as salary security for Nepali workers working in Saudi Arabia, ending double contracts, controlling excessive costs, ending fraud by manpower companies, and access to justice for workers, among others, according to Saudi labor laws.
There are currently four hundred thousand Nepalis working in Saudi Arabia. Of these, the majority are in the construction and service sectors. In the last 10 years, 1,352,800 people have worked in Saudi Arabia alone. Of these, 1,110,000 are female workers. In the fiscal year 2081/82, 152,000 people went back with work permits. The latest report of the Ministry of Labor states that 684 people have died in Saudi Arabia in the last two fiscal years.
