New Delhi, Jan 3: India and Saudi Arabia on Thursday signed a "landmark" agreement to protect the rights of Indian workers there and also agreed to form a joint committee to overcome obstacles in its implementation.
Minister of Labour of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Adel bin Mohammed Fakeih and Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi signed the Agreement on Labour Cooperation on Domestic Service Workers recruitment between the two countries.
The agreement will protect the rights of both employers and domestic service workers, regulate the contractual relation between them and take measures against recruiting agencies amongst other things.
Thanking the Kingdom for "adopting a humane approach in implementing the Nitaqat programme, Ravi also hoped the standard employment contract would be finalised at the earliest.
"It is indeed very satisfying to see that we could finalise the cooperation agreement and sign it today. This agreement will go a long way in protecting the interest of the workers. It is time now that the standard employment contract should also be finalised at the earliest," Ravi said.
Ravi thanked the Saudi authorities announcing the grace period from April, 2013, to November, 2013, allowing overstaying expatriate workers to correct their status or to return to their countries without penal action.
Fakeih said that during the grace period, almost 400,000 Indians have regularised their work permits.
"To overcome any possible difficulties and obstacles in its implementation, the two sides have agreed to form a joint bilateral committee comprising senior officials in the two ministries to meet periodically alternatively in the two countries," Fakeih said.
Officials said the labour cooperation was conceptualised during the visit of Ravi to Saudi Arabia in April, 2013, where both the ministers had agreed to hold discussions and finalise it at an early date.
Some of the salient features of the agreement are protecting the rights of both the employers and domestic service workers and regulate the contractual relation between them as well as ensure authenticity and implementation of employment contract.
Ravi said more than 1.4 million Indians have availed of the concessions during the grace period to correct their status.
There are about 28 lakh Indians in Saudi Arabia and they constitute the biggest group of migrant communities. Ravi said that out of the total domestic workers, 10 per cent are women and the rest are working in various sectors mostly drivers.
Officials said the agreement endeavors to control recruitment costs in both countries, ensures authenticity and implementation of employment contract between the employer and the domestic workers and also ensures legal measures against recruitment agencies in violation of the laws of either country.
Apart from that, the agreement aims at ensuring that the recruitment agencies and the employer do not impose any kind of unauthorised salary deduction and endeavours to establish a mechanism to provide 24 hours assistance to domestic sector workers.
This is the first step towards a comprehensive agreement on labour cooperation covering the entire spectrum of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, officials added.
The Saudi Minister for Labour said the Kingdom attaches great importance to the enhancement of bilateral relations and finds in India an important and active partner at more than one level.
Fakieh called on Vice-President Hamid Ansari and is scheduled to meet the External Affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Friday.
Fakieh said the position of the labour and economic relations between the two countries is excellent and both the countries have always looked forward to its enhancement through more efforts to explore the appropriate opportunities.
He said his country has issued more than a million work visas globally, many of them to Indian nationals, and added the market was expanding and there was a lot of growth in construction, infrastructure, industrialisation programme and expanding manufacturing facilities.
He said Nitaqat has helped clarify and regulate the right of workers and although they (workers) might have come specifically for one work, under it, the government has allowed them to search for other opportunities within the country.
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