A news report from the US says the reportedly missing Nepali workers might rather have left the company to join another in search for better earning after hints were given by the employing company.

Of the 200 Nepali workers at Cinram, a local DVD production company, 150 left the job last week that made headlines in Nepali newspapers.

Challen Stephens of the Huntsville Times, a local newspaper, quoted remaining Nepali workers at the company that their friends would not have left the job had they been given work for at least 40 hours a week. At Cinram, they earned $8 per hour but received fewer hours than they hoped.

Since the end of the Christmas, workers have had little overtime, working only 33 hours one week, 44 the next while having to pay between $200 and $300 on average as house rent.

“Why they are missing is their primary motivation to work and earn money,” Stephens quoted Dr. Tilak Shrestha, a Nepalese scientist who has befriended several of the workers, as saying. “There is not enough work and they went to other places to find better work than the Cinram.”

The Nepali workers who continue to pack boxes at Cinram say their ‘missing’ countrymen didn’t leave without an official OK. On November 29, a few weeks after Nepali workers began labeling and packing DVDs, a letter marked “personal and confidential” arrived at the workers’ apartments.

The letter stated that employment was at-will of the company, adding that, “Employees are free to relinquish their positions at any time, with or without cause.”

“Before getting that letter, no one went to other places,” said one of the remaining workers.

The company official said the missing Nepali might have returned to their country, who had become homesick. But workers say their friends have not (returned) because they have reached the US after paying as high as US$ 25,000 to the agents.

The case now has reached the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and might be dealt diplomatically. nepalnews.com ia Feb 05 08