International Labor Day: Demand for social security and proper wage

Ramesh Lamsal
KATHMANDU, April 30: The 129th International Labor Day is being marked across the globe on Tuesday.

A meeting of the labor organizations and labor leaders of the world held at Paris of France in 1889 took the decision to mark the World Labor Day across the globe every year. With this decision, May 1 has been celebrated as the World Labor Day since 1890.

Taking the May Day as a festival, workers celebrate this day with several programs to pile pressure on the government and employers to have their rights guaranteed.

In Nepal as well, various trade union organizations are making preparations for celebrating the Day by organizing different programs on the occasion. Nepal started marking the celebration of the Day with the Workers Movement (Majdoor Andolan) held at Biratnagar in 2007 BS, some 68 years ago.

Nepal government began granting public holiday on the day following the political change in 1990.

GEFONT Chairperson Binod Shrestha said that the government should lay special emphasis on the increment of laborers’ wage and effective and efficient mobilization of social security fund.

The labor wage should be increased every two years so the government should hold stakeholders consultation to do so this year, he added.

Former President of Nepal Trade Union Congress Laxman Bahadur Basnet stressed the need to formulate and implement worker-friendly policy when the new government is in place as per the Nepal Constitution. “New provision has been enshrined; new government is in place. The government should arrange worker-friendly policy to promote employment within the country”.

All Nepal Trade Union Federation Chairperson Ganesh Regmi underlined the need to immediately formulate and enforce regulations when the contribution-based Social Security Fund Act and New Labor Act have already come to effect.

Meanwhile, the government is making preparation to increase the wage of workers in a proper manner. In a meeting held with the representatives of Joint Trade Union Coordination Committee of Workers today, Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Raj Bista said efforts will be made to increase wages properly by instituting a Minimum Wage Board.