Issue of the in Nepal Editors Bishnu Rimal Umesh Upadhyaya Padam Khatiwada Issue of the in Nepal GEFONT i Issue of the World of Work in Nepal Editors Bishnu Rimal Umesh Upadhyaya Padam Khatiwada GEFONT ii Issue of the World of Work in Nepal Published by GEFONT General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions Man Mohan Labour Building, GEFONT Plaza, Putalisadak, Kathmandu, Nepal P O Box: 10652 Tel: +977 1 4248 072 Fax: +977 1 4248 073 E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.gefont.org Cover, Lay-out, Design and Printing Management M's Mouse, 4265944 E-mail : [email protected] Cover Photo by Mahendra Shrestha Mr. Krishna Bahadur Rai, 46 (a blind worker) working in stone quarry, Mahadevbeshi, Dhading since 14 years Price: Nrs. 350.00 GEFONT gratefully acknowledges the support of International Labour Office (ILO-ACTRAV, Geneva) Special acknowledgement Mr. Pong Sul Ahn, ILO Sub-Regional Office, New Delhi Mr. M. Kattel, Kathmandu, Nepal © GEFONT 2005 GEFONT publication No. 89 ISBN: 99946-940-7-3 iii Editorial Notes While we are publishing this collection, Nepali people are taking to the streets for genuinely urgent reasons. In Nepal today, advocates of democracy and peace have been suppressed while a militarised autocratic regime rules with an iron fist pushing Nepal a step backward and mocking the long sacrifices of the Nepali people that resulted in democracy in 1990. Our hard-won democracy has once more suffered a royal coup. And naturally the people are out in the streets to fight the coup. One of the major shortcomings of our multiparty system was that it failed to check dictatorial stratagems and feudal conspiracies against democracy. It failed to reckon the fact that feudal forces were unhappy at the general people enjoying their rights, and they could stage a comeback to strike against democracy that enabled the people to enjoy freedoms. Our democracy could not stand vigilant about its enemies. Today’s Nepal is in the quagmire of extreme leftist and rightist ideologies and, as such, caught in the crossfire of violence and counter violence these extremist ideologies. Innocent people without weapons are paying a tough price as the country continues to descend into chaos and violence. The 1990 Constitution that was drawn up with great efforts and sacrifices has been rendered obsolete. The popular mass movement of 1990 had restored people's sovereignty and enabled them to govern themselves through the government elected by them. But 12 years later, on the shameful day of October 4 (2002), a royal proclamation was made suddenly snatching the people’s sovereignty. After the following '28-month long drama', the monarch went a step further to finish all the remnants of a democratic set-up. The shameful day that marked the finish of Nepali people's sovereignty was February 1st (2005). The day the king snatched the executive power and imposed an absolute regime by severing communication links, jailing party leaders, criminalising press and publication freedoms and suspending universal human rights and liberties. The king did all this with the help of the military. Shame on the royal coup! iv The country now is burning; the need of the day is to control the fire. Our rights have been snatched and our dignity has been humiliated; the need of the day is to open our mouths as early as possible or else we will have our mouths shut permanently. We should take upon ourselves the responsibility to redefine democracy and chart a way to achieve it in order to restore the rights and freedoms of the Nepali people forestall conspiracies from brutal and insane offenders. If we do not take this august responsibility, there will be no one to do so. We are publishing this collection as an effort towards that responsibility, a collection of and about the actors of the World of Work in Nepal, about the struggles for the dignity of working class peoples. More specifically, this publication has attempted to document GEFONT efforts and GEFONT led movements for the institutionalisation of trade unionism in the post- 1990 Nepal while fighting chaos, violence and anarchy all along the way. In order to make this publication reader friendly, the articles presented here have been classified into nine thematic chapters beginning with a short introduction to the Nepali labour market in order to contextualise the World of Work of the 12 years of democratic periods. The classified articles are in a descending order, starting from 2005 back to 1996. Most of the articles carry GEFONT views although some of them were presented in various forums by GEFONT officials in their personal capacity. Where there is no name of an author, footnotes at the end of each article acknowledge the contribution of the person concerned. We expect this publication to be a window through which to peep at the Nepali World of Work from its evolution to the present. The publication tells the readers stories and issues of confrontations with odds and challenges and assimilations to ground realities in order to make the labour movement value based, practical and pro-workers. This publication represents the mood and mind of the Nepali labour movement, one that has a strong bearing on the democratic movement of the country and one that will decide the future of democracy in Nepal. Happy New Year 2006!!! Editors December 2005 v Contents Editors Note iii Revisiting Our Labour Market vii Chapter 1 Industrial Relations 1 1. Trade Union Movement in Nepal: A Brief History 3 2. The Social Charter: A South Asian Trade Union Perspective 18 3. Trade Unions and Productivity in Nepal 26 4. Restructuring Enterprises and Workforce in Nepal 30 5. Role of Workers in Labour Dispute Settlement 35 6. Collective Bargaining as a Means of Cooperation: A Case of Nepal 38 7. The Role of Trade Union in Nepal in the 21st Century 42 8. Workers' Participation in Decision-making: A Trade Union Perspective 54 Chapter 2 Exploitative Forms of Labour 59 1. Dalits, Discrimination and Food Industry in Nepal 61 2. Hazardous Forms of Child Labour in Nepal 68 3. Maghi - the Black Day 74 Chapter 3 Women/Gender 77 1. Decade of Multiparty Democracy in Nepal: From Gender Perspective 79 2. Women, Gender and Mass media in Nepal 88 3. Women's Property Rights Movement in Nepal 93 4. Women's Movement Scenario in Nepal 97 5. Privatisation, Economic Liberalization and Impacts on Women Workers in Nepal 110 Chapter 4 Informal Economy 117 1. Informal Economy New Challenges for Trade Unions 119 2. Women in Informal Employment: The Case of Nepal 133 3. Home Based Workers in Nepal 146 4. Informal Sector and Labour Rights 150 vi Chapter 5 Social Security / Labour Legislation 161 1. Social Security in Nepal 163 2. Social Protection for Workers in Informal Economy 170 3. Analysis of the Wage Structure in Nepal 186 4. Trade Union effort to develop Labour Law in Nepal 196 5. Labour Law and Social Security in Nepal 102 6. Poverty, Wage Structure and Social Security 207 Chapter 6 Liberalisation, Globalisation and Privatisation 213 1. Challenging Globalisation 215 2. Poverty, Power and Politics 222 3. Debt, Trade and Labour in the Contemporary World 225 4. A Glance at Labour Force & Employment in Nepal 232 5. Nepal: Labour Liberalisation and Productivity 238 6. Globalisation and Trade Unions in Nepal 241 7. Structural Adjustment and Economic Restructuring in Nepal: Trade Unions Response and Demands 245 8. Poverty Reduction Strategy and Labour Perspectives 252 9. Impact of Globalization in the Formal & Informal Sector: Responses & Resistances 258 Chapter 7 Migrant Workers 267 1. GEFONT and Migrant Workers 269 2. Issue of Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families 278 Chapter 8 Occupational Safety and Health 287 1. Occupational Health, Safety and Environment in Construction sector 289 2. All for One and One for All Campaign 296 Chapter 9 Miscellaneous 305 1. Trade Union Position on Indigenous People in Nepal 307 2. Workers in the Textile and Garment Sector in Nepal 310 3. Decent Work in Agriculture 314 4. GEFONT on Food Sovereignty 320 5. GEFONT Manifesto of May Day -2002 323 6. Our Journey to the New Millennium 330 Acronym and Abbreviations 335 vii Revisiting Our Labour Market By Bishnu Rimal On Labour market After the introduction of plurality in Nepal's politics, globally widespread economic liberalisation started to influence the Nepali labour sector. The liberal economic and industrial policy of the state promoted the process of the globalisation of capital. Despite the opportunity of openness and competition, the outcomes of liberalisation have been mainly negative. One of the examples is the privatisation of the public enterprises and resultant expulsion of large number of workers. The provisions of permanent job status and subsidies for the welfare of the people, which were in place during the period of mixed economy, have been severed. The defective policy of so-called 'hire and fire' has been given a high emphasis by the employers. They prefer to hire workers whenever they feel the need and fire them at their discretion. The workers are paid a poverty wage when there is surplus of labour. In scarcity, they are paid comparatively higher amounts. In addition, the practice of labour sub-contracting has been enforced. The facilities provided for long time have been curtailed to compensate the increase in other costs in enterprises and industries. In the world of work, workers are still treated as a commodity. Traditional employment in Nepal is actually based on agriculture. In the last 12 years, there has been a regressive trend of change in agriculture compared to a progressive trend in the non-agricultural sector.