Kathmandu, September 21:

A clutch of three trade unions are all set to hold a series of protest programmes against the government’s proposed “ill-devised” trade union law, which is about to be brought enforced through an ordinance soon. The Ministry for Labour and Transportation Management recently sent circulars to the trade unions on September 16, stating that an Amended Trade Act 2048 had been passed by the cabinet and had also urged them to send their feedback within seven days.

In response, the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Democratic Congress of Nepal Trade Union Federation (DECONT) today raised their hackles and announced a series of protests against the “undemocratic” labour ordinance. In the first series — from September 22 to 30 — the trade unions will organise a series of curtain-raising programmes in all companies, regional meetings. they will organise protest banners and campaign for solidarity with the ILO and other international institutions. They will also launch various protest campaigns. “On September 30, we will organise a nation-wide protest programme,” said the joint press release of the trade unions, that was distributed in the press conference.

According to the proposed law, an employee can be kept under probation period for 300 days prior to confirmation, and anyone who contravenes the management conditions can be sacked anytime. “This will permit any institution to hire workers on a daily wage basis and maintain outsourcing. This ordinance ordains that any worker can be transferred to any post at any time,” the release stated. It stated that the ordinance also proposed the “no-work-no-pay” system, depriving the workers of the right of social security. Similarly, the government possesses the right to name any industry as “order-based”, wherein the provision of Labour Act will not function; the management can hire anybody without paying minimum wages, and again, he or she can be sacked for breach of contract. “Why is the government pressurising the trade unions to go in for movement and serial strikes?” the release questioned.

Binod Shrestha, general-secretary of GEFONT, said the trade unions were compelled to revolt as the new Act would encroach on all the internationally-assured rights of workers and would make them puppets of the employers.

Talking to this daily, Achyut Bahadur Pandey, general-secretary of NTCU, said that the trade unions would file a protest letter against the proposed Act as there was no other way to kick off a movement against the government ordinance.