Foreign employment office deserted due to online

As the services related to foreign employment have started flowing online, the premises of the Foreign Employment Office at Tahachal in Kathmandu has become deserted. Crowds at the office have eased after the government started issuing labor permits and re-labor permits online, removing the obligation for workers going for foreign employment to go to the office for labor permits and re-labor permits.

The office has been issuing new labor permits online since last year. On the first day itself, 855 people had taken online labor permit again.

According to the office, around one thousand service recipients have taken re-employment approval from the online system daily. Hariram Nagila, director of the office, said that the issue of online approval of labor has become effective during the risk of corona infection. "The office, which used to be very crowded at some point, has been deserted since the online service started," he said.

Earlier, there were complaints of increasing corona infection and improper financial transactions between the staff and the service recipients while providing services in the physical presence of more than one thousand service recipients daily. Similarly, when the pressure of service recipients increased, the employees were forced to work till night.

The office has been giving institutional labor sanctions, re-labor sanction,s and individual labor sanctions. An average of 1,565 final labor permits are issued daily by the office. Minister for Labor, Employment, and Social Security Krishna Kumar Shrestha has directed to make the work permit 'paperless'.

As it takes time to check the documents online and sometimes there may be internet or server problem, the office has requested to fill out the online form for labor approval three days in advance. If the service recipient fills in the correct details, the labor sanction can be given on the same day, said Aryal. For re-employment approval, term life insurance and foreign employment welfare funds have to be paid through online payment providers.

Term life insurance fee will be charged according to age. Each worker has to pay Rs. 1,500 to the welfare fund. Life insurance and welfare fee is Rs. 5,208 for 35 years, Rs. 6,431 for 36 to 50 years, and Rs. 10,963 for 51 years and above. The office has requested the service recipients not to pay an extra amounts except insurance and welfare fees.