Kathmandu, April 5: The government has initiated the process to sign a bilateral labor agreement with Turkey.
According to media reports, the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) is doing the groundwork to send a draft proposal to Turkey for facilitating the Nepali migrant workers to go to the destination.
Previously, the government had exchanged a draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Turkey in April.
Turkey had shown willingness to hire Nepali workers during the ministerial-level meeting in Geneva in June. Then the labor ministries of the two countries had agreed to sign the MoU soon.
Officials of the ministry have been holding discussions with those of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Turkey to sort out vital issues before finalizing the MoU, it is learned.
Nepal is looking to incorporate major provisions like supplying workers at zero-cost with employer bearing recruitment service charge, two-way airfare, visa fee, health check-up fee, security screening and levy charges of Nepali migrants in a labor pact with Turkey.
Additionally, the Nepali side wants to ensure that migrants are provided a minimum wage. At present, Turkey provides a basic salary of 2,020 Turkish liras ($381) to laborers for eight hours of work through the pact.
Earlier, Nepal and Turkey had held talks related to the hiring of Nepali migrant workers through government to government (G2G) model for various technical and non-technical jobs.
Currently, Turkish companies hire Nepali workers through various recruitment agencies.
