Kathmandu, August 1
The national gathering of domestic recruiting agencies today decided to defy the government’s plan to hike guarantee amount for recruiting firms.
The Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) had organised a national meeting in the Capital today to form a common consensus on various labour issues, including the government’s plan to raise guarantee amount for manpower firms.
During the meeting, representatives of various recruiting agencies opined that hiking the guarantee amount will put their business at risk and decided to take to the streets if such a decision is implemented forcefully.
The government had recently unveiled its plan to raise guarantee amount for recruiting agencies by 20 folds to Rs 60 million, targeting to make manpower agencies more responsible towards migrant workers, compensate victims for fraudulent activities and encourage merger among manpower agencies.
Currently, recruiting agencies need to deposit Rs 700,000 in cash and Rs 2.30 million worth of bank guarantee to acquire recruiting licences.
Participants at the meeting criticised the government for not consulting with the recruiting agencies while introducing different plans and programmes in country’s recruiting sector.
“Manpower companies are operating with just Rs 10,000 service fee that they charge their clients. In such a context, it is impossible for recruiting agencies to deposit Rs 60 million as guarantee amount,” said Rohan Gurung, president of NAFEA.
The representatives of manpower agencies threatened to halt their business across the country if the guarantee amount is raised forcefully. “We will launch series of other protest programmes if the guarantee amount is raised,” added Gurung.
There are almost 2,000 registered manpower agencies in the country, of which around 1,200 are in operation.
Meanwhile, few recruiting officials inclined towards Nepali Congress during the meeting today criticised the leadership of NAFEA for its failure to play an effective role in addressing the prevalent problems in the recruiting sector.
Written by Sandeep
This news first appeared on https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/recruiting-firms-to-protest-guarantee-amount-hike/ under the title “Recruiting firms to protest guarantee amount hike”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
