Parliament allows senior civil servants to join trade unions

May 12, 2006
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Thursday’s session of the House of Representatives (HoR) passed a motion allowing senior government officials to participate in trade unions and to direct the government to make necessary legal arrangements on the Labour Act and the Trade Union Act.

After the endorsement of the proposal tabled by CPN-UML lawmaker Pradip Gyawali, civil servants and government officials except security personnel, office heads responsible for managerial works and those holding positions equivalent to Gazetted First Class or above can enjoy fundamental trade union rights guaranteed by ILO Conventions.

The government officers holding the position of under-secretary and below can join unions. Until now, only clerks of the rank up to Nayab Subba were allowed to do so.

Earlier, tabling the motion in the House, Gyawali said since civil servants, professionals and various trade unions actively joined the recently held popular people’s movement, their rights should be protected, adding, “We should take some important decisions for sustainability of the movement’s achievements.”

Hari Acharya of People’s Front Nepal, Shankar Prasad Pandey and Sabitri Bogati of NC participated in the discussion on the motion, which was passed through a voice vote.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Chitra Lekha Yadav, who was chairing Thursday’s session began the session by reading out a pamphlet published by people displaced due to the Maoist insurgency, which was submitted to her.

The pamphlet had urged the government to fulfill 20 demands, which also includes their inclusion in the upcoming government-Maoist talks, declaring the names of all those killed in the course of the insurgency and sending those injured or the kin of the killed to Europe or America for jobs.

This is the first incident in the parliamentary history of Nepal when the chair of the house session read out the demands of the public directly in the session.

Meanwhile, speaking on Thursday’s session of the parliament, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula appealed to the Maoists to stop extortions and holding public marches in combat dress, in order to make the environment conducive for talks.

Lawmakers raised their voices against Maoists’ extortion during Wednesday’s session of the HoR.

The minister also suggested the rebels not to create obstacles to the peace process which would go against the code of conduct as put forward by the Maoists themselves.

Reiterating his commitment towards providing medical treatment to those injured during the pro-democracy movement, the Home Minister informed parliamentarians that the government would setup a separate fund at the Health Ministry.