Lawmakers divided over trade union rights in civil service

The State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the parliament has directed the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to do more homework regarding the bills on formation, operation and terms of reference of federal civil service.

The parliamentary meeting today failed to forge consensus on the issues following the dissenting views of the lawmakers over the trade union rights to the civil servants. Some lawmakers at the meeting viewed to end the provision of trade union in the civil service.

The Committee chair Shashi Shrestha directed the ministry to bring the bill after holding further discussions. Likewise, Lawmaker Pampha Bhusal urged to manage separate kinds of provision in regard to the formation of the trade unions in all three-tier of civil service.

On the occasion, lawmaker Rekha Sharma argued that the trade union rights should be given only to the non-gazetted officials.

Lawmakers Prem Suwal said that trade union rights in civil service, military and police should not be implemented though the trade union rights cannot be curtailed by the article 34 of the Constitution of Nepal.

Lawmakers Dila Sangraula, Nawa Raj Silwal, Dilendra Prasad Badu, Devendra Raj Kandel and Jhapat Rawal took part in the deliberations and expressed their views on civil servants’ code of conducts, good governance and officials’ deployment at the local level.