Salaries to be paid through banks
Kathmandu, July 16
A Cabinet meeting held here today has approved the labour wage payment procedure, whereby salaries will have to be channelised through banks in the coming days.
As per the decision taken today, works related to groundwork to implement the decision will be initiated from Tuesday, the first day of the new fiscal year, 2018-19. In the first phase, government staffers, including those employed in the provincial and local bodies, universities, state-owned enterprises, governmental committees and projects, among others, will receive their salary through banking channel before October 17.
In the second phase, banks and financial institutions, insurance companies, hotels, airline companies, travel agencies and other service industries, cooperatives, labour supply agencies, community and institutional education companies, I/NGOs, trusts and firms established as per company registration regulations will have to pay their staffers through the banking channel before January 14, 2019.
Workers that do not fall in first or second category, including domestic workers, will have to be paid their salary compulsorily through the banking channel before January 14, 2020.
Likewise, if there is no access of banking channel in local bodies, the employer will have to pay the salary of the staffers through banking channel within three months of establishment of a banking institution.
In case of emergency, however, the employer can pay the staffer in cheque or cash.
On May 28, the Cabinet had amended the Labour Act 2017 and passed the ‘Labour Bylaw 2018', which states that ‘all kinds of employment agencies, companies or individuals engaged in any sector have to compulsorily pay the salary of their staffers through banking system'. Today's payment procedure regulation is one of the outcomes of the recently endorsed bylaw.
“The government hopes that requiring employers to pay their staffers through the banking channel will result in transparency and ensure that the workers are getting paid as per their employment contract. This would also make it easier for the monitoring authorities to cross-check whether the minimum wages are being implemented or not,” said Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Gokarna Bista.
