May Day celebrated
May Day is being celebrated throughout the country amidst various programmes on Monday.
Trade Union leaders have said that unlike in the bygone years, this year’s May Day is going to radiate new hopes among the Nepalese laborers and all the trade unions.
Trade unions leaders admit that the popular democratic movement that restored the rights of people would create a better environment for the laborers regardless of their political ideologies.
Sunil Manandhar, president of the Nepalese Federation of Trade Union (NTUF), said the Nepalese trade union movement has been much influenced by partisan interests.
He further said that the majority of workers in the country are yet to be brought in the formal sector.
More than eight million agricultural and construction workers who constitute over 95 percent of the total labor force in the country are still unnoticed in the main economic domain.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) – out of 11 million labour forces in the country, only 3.6 percent workers are employed in the formal sector that involves some form of social security. But over 96 percent labour forces in the informal sector are deprived of any security.
Nepal is signatory to most of the International Labor Organisation (ILO) Conventions and it has expressed its commitment for uplifting the condition of all sorts of laborers. However, nothing seems to have done in practice so far, say labour relation experts.
Workers in agriculture and construction sectors are getting almost the same rate as they used to receive some ten years before. An agriculture worker receives Rs 73 (less than a dollar a day) and a construction worker gets Rs 90/- (US $ 1.21).
The agricultural sector, which has more than 41 percent contribution in the national economy, is largely influenced by the traditional system of employing workers.
According to the Labour Act, an institution with less than Rs. 50,000/- investment and having less than 10 employees are treated as informal sector. nepalnews.com pb May 01 06
