E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, JUN 21 -

The government has resumed work on appointing labour attachés to six labour destinations—Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Israel, Oman and Kuwait. The earlier attempt of the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management to appoint labour attachés was scrapped by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) citing violation of the Foreign Employment Act 2008 and the legal provision of mandatory appointment of a woman labour attaché in Israel.

The ministry said that this time they had prepared the selection criteria by forming a committee based on the Foreign Employment Regulation and feedback from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affair, the Ministry of General Administration and the CIAA. The ministry on Monday also forwarded the selection criteria to the concerned ministries for their feedback.

“We will further improve the criteria after receiving inputs from the ministries,” said Krishna Hari Pushkar Karna, assistant spokesperson and under secretary at the ministry. He added that they were hopeful that the appointment of labour attachés would be completed within a month.

The ministry is planning to appoint two under secretaries as labour attachés to Japan and South Korea and four section officers for the post in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Oman and Israel.

Based on the CIAA’s directives, the criteria determination committee has made knowledge of English compulsory for labour attachés. Candidates must have a minimum TOEFL score of 50 percent or 5.5 marks in the IELTS exam, an academic degree from a foreign educational institute or passed the English Language Proficiency course from Bishwa Bhasa Campus.

Similarly, potential labour attachés must be employed as an officer or under secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management with a minimum one year’s work experience. They are also required to have an educational qualification of at least bachelor level.

Karna said that since the criteria had been prepared following discussions with the Foreign Ministry, they would approve the criteria at the earliest and start the selection of candidates. “Candidates applying for the post must have knowledge of the native language and labour laws of the respective country where the applicant wants to work,” he added.

Two years ago, the government had appointed labour attachés to four major labour markets—the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. However, according to a high-level official at the ministry, they have not been able to work effectively mainly due to lack of resources and language problems.

“The government should increase the resources for labour attachés to allow them to work more effectively,” said Parbati Aryal, labour attaché to the United Arab Emirates. Aryal, who is currently in the capital, said that there were many problems related to migrant workers. However, government spending on labour attachés is not encouraging, he added.

Posted on: 2011-06-21 08:37

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