UNI Nepal Liaison Council Wraps Up 6th National Conference with a Vision of Transformation

The UNI Nepal Liaison Council (NLC) successfully concluded its 6th National Conference on December 10, 2023, focusing on the theme “Together for Transformation”.  

The conference, held in Kathmandu, drew the active participation of 80 delegates from 21 affiliates and three sectors, and notably, a healthy 45% of the delegates are women.

The conference elected a new slate of the executive board, executive committee, and management committee. Brother Shankar Lamichhane won the endorsement from the conference and was successfully re-elected as the UNI Nepal Liaison Council’s President for the new term.

President Shankar reaffirmed,

“We are determined and united in our commitment to grow and strengthen UNI affiliations in Nepal, improve working conditions and the lives of workers in the country’s service sector.”

Guest-of-Honour, Mr Sharat Singh Bhandari, Minister of Labour, Employment, and Social Security (MOLESS) emphasized the importance of unions and urged the UNI NLC to collaborate with the ministry to address labour issues in the Nepalese service sector.  

The 6^th UNI NLC Conference adopted a series of motions and an action plan for the next four years, covering diverse areas such as freedom of association, gender-based violence, social security, workers’ rights, environmental conservation and green economy.

In its strategic action plan, organizing workers and unions remains a high priority underpinning collective bargaining, cross-sector collaboration, and promotion of social dialogue. The plan also aimed for 40% gender representation and 10% youth representation in all statutory bodies of UNI NLC.

The UNI NLC Conference was witnessed by President of UNI Asia & Pacific Akihiko Matsuura and the Regional Secretary Rajendra Acharya.

UNI Global Union President and concurrently UNI Asia & Pacific Deputy President, Gerard Dwyer in his solidarity greetings, underscored the importance of global solidarity and organization, especially in the face of uncertainty, rapid changes, and the rise of non-standard employment in the service sector.

Representatives from the Nepalese National Trade Union movement, Mr Biond Shrestha- JTUCC President, and international solidarity support organizations, including Solidarity Centre, Mr Numan Ozcan, SASK Finland, Mr Farizan Fajari, and the ILO Resident Representative, Ms Luna Ranjit, were also at hand to witness and convey their best wishes to the conference.

Six outstanding unions were honoured with awards in various categories, recognizing their exceptional performance. A pre-conference session on “Partnership for Fair Work: Empowering Nepalese Students & Workers in Australia”, also took place with the collaboration between UNI NLC and SDA Australia.