Investors demand govt address labor troubles

BY PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

KATHMANDU, Sept 12 - While the country's first president was unveiling the new government's policies and program Wednesday, vowing to set up a PM-led investment board, a leading multinational company in the country -- Dabur Nepal -- was reeling under serious labor unrest.On that day, this ...

This is not the first time Dabur has faced labor problems. It is also not the only company that is finding it tough to cope.

Crescent Industries - a Rs 500 million joint venture company of Minakshi Group of the Industries of Kolkata - closed its factories in Biratnagar in June 2007 due to perennial labor stir. About half a dozen garment factories including largest exporter Cotton Comfort have pulled down shutters for the same reason, according to Garment Association of Nepal (GAN). The problem has also taken its toll on some two dozen large-scale carpet manufacturers over the last one year.

While the agony of closed industries remains unrecorded, entrepreneurs say the number of industries suffering due to labor stirs launched on different pretexts is still huge.

"What's unfortunate for us is that the problem did not end even after we raised perks for workers by 70 percent over the last two years," said Kabindra Thakur, former president of Nepal Carpet Exporters’ Association (NCEA).

And this is happening at a time when Maoist leaders untiringly reiterate their business friendly credentials and their aim at a double digit growth trajectory. Just on Wednesday, the government declared in its policy and program that the "coming decade would be a decade of economic revolution."  "We will exploit 10,000 MW electricity, lure 2 million tourists, drive the country into double-growth trajectory and raise per capita income to US$ 3,000," Finance Minister Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai had said last week when he addressed the business community.

The party and the government have left no stone unturned to show people big dreams and make sweet promises. But, it has not bothered to put the basics in the right place, say investors. "Trade unions, social discipline and security are major challenges of the time. If the country is to take off on a double-digit trajectory, these challenges must be dealt with sternly," said former Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat.

"Labor reform is a major issue we have to deal with on a high priority basis if we are to bring to life the dream of a new economic landscape and a new Nepal," said Kush Kumar Joshi, president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Even Bishnu Rimal, General Secretary of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) agrees. He says the ongoing protest of the Maoist-affiliated trade union in Dabur Nepal has encouraged militancy among labor unions.

"It is untimely and against the collective bargaining system provisioned by the law," he told the Post.

Entrepreneurs lamented that their call to tame trade unions for at least two years has only found the deaf ears of political leaders. Even the Labor Ministry and concerned authority do not respond to our request calls, said Thakur, who himself is a Constituent Assembly member.

Uday Raj Pandey, vice president of GAN, welcomed Wednesday's government announcement that it will form a Labor Commission to deal with the problem and Investment Board led by the Prime Minister to bolster investment.

"This is a good move. But mere announcement won't work," said he. He urged the government to act. "And act it must if it is serious about fulfilling the dreams it has committed to the people," he added.