By IANS
New Delhi : In order to safeguard the interests of overseas Indian workers, the government has finalised a model work contract that will be binding on both the workers and their foreign employers.
“We have finalised a model work contract which every worker emigrating will have to sign as also his foreign employer,” Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi told newspersons here Tuesday.
Addressing newspersons on the concluding day of a two-day conference of Indian ambassadors to 10 countries that have significant presence of Indian workers, the minister said the envoys have made a number of recommendations and these would be put into effect very soon.
“In the deliberations over the two days, our main focus has been on the welfare of overseas Indian workers,” Ravi said at the conference attended by Indian envoys to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Malaysia, Jordan, Libya and Yemen.
The model contract will specify the basic monthly salary, hours of work, overtime pay, salary payment by cheque, termination of contract including clause on termination by employee and employer respectively, and free transportation and medical check-up for the worker.
The model contract will be applied with necessary country-specific modifications in all the countries.
“The contract will have to be attested by the Indian missions in the respective countries,” the minister said.
There are around five million Indians in the six GCC countries of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. Many of them are working as contract labourers in the booming construction industry there.
In Malaysia, people of Indian origin constitute about eight percent of the country’s population of around 24 million. Many of them had migrated decades ago from India to work in the rubber plantations in the Southeast Asian nation.
Jordan, Yemen and Libya too have large numbers of Indian workers.
The minister said that the envoys have stressed the need to check the malaise of illegal migration in India itself.
“For example, illegal immigrants take advantage of systems like that in Malaysia where one gets visa on arrival,” Ravi said. This system is now being closely monitored by the Malaysian authorities.
Secretary in the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) Nirmal Singh said that a major awareness campaign is being launched across the country to educate potential emigrants on the risks of illegal migration and the need to follow the emigration clearance procedures.
“This apart, our embassies will have 24-hour helplines for overseas workers who fall in trouble,” he said.
The conference has also formulated a package of policy measures for the protection and welfare of women emigrants.
“The other main focus in this meet has been on domestic workers, especially women,” Ravi said.
The new package will include specifying a minimum wage, a 24X7 helpline, establishing shelters for runaway maids, legal assistance and healthcare support.
“The contract will have to be signed directly by the housemaid and the foreign employer,” secretary Singh said.
He added that a system in Kuwait, where the government works in coordination with an NGO to help domestic maids in trouble, would be replicated by the Indian missions in other countries in accordance with country-specific laws.
“A consensus has been arrived at that there be a minimum wage for domestic workers and this will be made operational very soon,” Singh said.
Participants at the conference worked towards achieving a minimum level of policy coherence and establishing appropriate institutional arrangements to ensure benchmarked standards of living and working conditions for overseas Indian workers in all major labour receiving countries.