Trade unions aim for 2 million covered under recently launched Social Security Fund
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“We’ll manage to pass the coverage for the informal and migrant workers before the end of the year” whispered the Kapil Mani Gyawali, Executive Director at the Social Security Fund in my ear.
I had shook his hand politely while he was exiting the stage after his speech made during the Nepal Social Security Day, 27 November. This date was still novel, proclaimed five years earlier when they launched the SSF. I could barely hear him over the sound of the over 500 trade union members clapping in the hall. It sounded too good to be true, we’d been pushing for these guidelines for the past five years.
How to solve the issues for the employers’ side contribution for a domestic worker working for several families and without a written contract?
Or for a taxi driver combining three app-based platforms to get clients?
Not to mention the many Nepali migrant workers who leave to work in the Gulf countries or Malaysia, and come back having contributed no funds to a pension?
And with the current instability of Nepal government, I reflected the Director’s optimism seemed just that, very optimistic. The Director exited behind a huge arrow on the stage that pointed to the goal the trade union had just unveiled: to get 2 million people enrolled over the next two years. Quite a tall order, if you take into consideration that 5 years into the SSF, barely 400.000 workers are covered, mostly from the formal sector. It’d mean a 500% increase and that while aiming for the hardest sectors to enroll: self employed, informal and migrant workers. The Director’s optimism however turned out to be founded: on 27th of December, the new guidelines were passed which should allow these groups to enroll starting April 2023. A huge leap, and the result of many years of joint advocacy by the trade unions, with the technical assistance to the SSF by the ILO. A huge achievement in terms of regulation and advocacy, but one that will only lead to more people getting better coverage if the hope of reaching 2 million people in 2 years of the Nepali trade unions is just as well-founded.
But if there is one place where hope can indeed move mountains, it must surely be Nepal!
By Bruno Deceukelier
