In its continuous bid to lobbying workers' issue at different forums, NTUC leadership held several informal meetings with Nepali Congress lawmaker including NC General Secretary and MP Mr. Bishwa Prakash Sharma. As a result of NTUC's effort, MP Mr. Bishwa Prakash Sharma spoke covering the issue of workers in informal sectors during the emergency hour of the House of Representatives meeting on Tuesday, 18 June 2024.  He demanded the inclusion of informal sector workers under the social security umbrella and emphasized the urgent need for separate occupational safety and health law to protect workers. His call to action followed a tragic incident in Surkhet and Kathmandu, where three individuals suffocated while cleaning a well.

Major highlights of his speech in House of Representatives:

• Nepal government has formulated National OSH Policy, 2076 but it is not implemented. Nepal governments should also initiate to ratify ILO Conventions No. 155 and No. 187 in the context that the ILO has adopted OSH as fundamental rights from 2022.
• Nepal Government should formulate separate OSH law that will facilitate concerned stakeholders to identify hazardous work, measures to follow while carrying out such hazardous work, adopt risk mitigating measures and provision of insurance and compensation for any casualties.
• Informal and unorganized workers form a large portion of workforce in Nepal. Government should integrate all informal sector workers into the contribution based social security fund. It is very important for the welfare and protection of unorganized sector workers. Government's effort to address this issue in the Budget speech is praiseworthy but the Government of Nepal should allocate budget to cover the cost of contribution from government side to integrate unorganized workers in this scheme.

The live version of the speech can be accessed in the following link (first speech of the meeting).

https://hr.parliament.gov.np/np/parliamentLive