Decent civil works in Nepal: From research to action planning
This study is about decent work in civil works in Nepal. It aims to provide trade unions, workers’ and employers’ organizations and the government information about labour practices and the needs of workers, employers, investors in infrastructure and facilitating government institutions.
This study in Nepal addresses decent work issues in the following areas: policies for productive employment; labour policies and practices; recruitment policy and practice; job security; remuneration and wage payment; gender issues and child labour; working time and rest and occupational safety and health; the right to organise; social dialogue and consultation and finally the freedom to leave work.
In at least two areas improvements can be made in order to grasp the potential for systematically creating productive jobs in the civil works sector. The first is the current method of contracting, including contract documentation. By making this friendlier to labour based implementation a stronger culture of using labour based methods could be fostered, linked to this is the second issue concerning training for efficient labour based methods and execution. Construction work as practiced in Nepal is hard and often dangerous work; while construction practices in this country are hardly the least mechanised in the world, labour-based methods are nevertheless widely used. In such a context, there is room to pursue more decent work.
In at least two areas improvements can be made in order to grasp the potential for systematically creating productive jobs in the civil works sector. The first is the current method of contracting, including contract documentation. By making this friendlier to labour based implementation a stronger culture of using labour based methods could be fostered, linked to this is the second issue concerning training for efficient labour based methods and execution. Construction work as practiced in Nepal is hard and often dangerous work; while construction practices in this country are hardly the least mechanised in the world, labour-based methods are nevertheless widely used. In such a context, there is room to pursue more decent work.