Asians cover the labor shortage in Romania, locals prefer to emigrate to the West, writes kathmandupost.com

Padam arrived in Romania in September 2019 after paying a Nepali recruitment agency 560,000 rupiah (equivalent to 19,000 lei) to get a job in Sinaia, a mountain resort about 123 km north of Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

“I could earn up to Rs 5,000 (about Rs 180) a day,” said Padam, who often worked 12-hour shifts without even a bathroom break.

In March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic broke out. Like everywhere else, Romania’s tourism industry has been in decline. Padam, who has to send home at least 50,000 rupees (Rs 1,700) every month to cover the loan taken out by his family, had no choice but to look for another job.

But his experience at his new job was terrible. “I haven’t been paid for four months,” father-of-two Padam said. “The company still owes me about R470,000 (R16,000).”

Padam is one of 4,324 Nepalis who arrived in the Eastern European country in 2019, according to Romania’s General Inspectorate of Immigration.

As about three million citizens have left the country of about 19 million in search of a better life in the West, Romania now relies on Asian workers – first Vietnamese, now Nepalese and Indian – to fill the need for hotels, restaurants, babysitters. and construction, jobs that Romanians avoid.

Asian workers are cheaper, skilled, trained and ready to go abroad, Ann Marie Stavri, who runs the Jordan River recruitment agency in Romania, told the Katmandu Post.

Between 2016 and 2020, Romania increased the quota for workers from non-EU countries from 3,000 to 30,000, and Nepalis are greatly benefiting from this.

With no labor agreement between Kathmandu and Bucharest and weak labor market regulation in Nepal, migrant workers lured by the dream of working in Europe are being exploited at every step of their journey, according to a cross-border investigation by the Kathmandu Post.

The Nepali company then profiles the employees of the partner agency in Romania, who in turn are hired by potential employers

Recruiting begins with potential employees contacting recruitment agencies to find work in an Eastern European country where almost no English is spoken. The Nepali company then shows the profile of the partner agency’s workers in Romania, who in turn are hired by potential employers. If the profile meets the needs, it pays the Nepali agent a commission and also the air ticket for the worker.

“Agencies expect to earn at least Rs 450,000 (Rs 15,000) from each worker, leaving the rest to the sub-agent who brings in those who want to go abroad,” says Ramesh, a sub-agent who declined to give his actual amount. name.

Last October, Ramesh, which sends workers to the Gulf countries and Malaysia, sent two workers to Romania for the first time. Since then, many people who wish to work in Romania call every day.

But Ramesh says he is in a tight spot. He sends more and more Nepalis to Romania, making more and more money, but it also entails greater risks. In addition, the promises of some regarding the granting of PMP and the possibility to bring their family to Romania appear misleading.

“I don’t want to because Romania is a new destination for Nepali workers. No one knows what the income will be or what work they will do there,” said Ramesh, who received about 200,000 rupees (7,000 lei) as commission for sending two workers to Romania. “We sent two workers as excavators, but they were invited to work as ordinary workers for the first month. I may have made more money compared to what I do with the Nepalis I send to the Persian Gulf, but if the workers return home, the amount [legală] the compensation awarded will also be higher. Who will pay for this?”

Some recruitment agencies take commissions not only from their colleagues in Romania, but also from potential employees. Agencies also often fail to deliver on promises made to employees.

When S. was about to go to work in Romania, his staffing agency promised him well-paid overtime, the opportunity to travel to Europe, and a salary of about US$820 per month.

“I dared,” said S.

He took a loan of around 500,000 rupees (Rs 17,000) to pay his employment agency. But before he left, he was told his restaurant job would only pay $520.

“I was angry, but there was nothing I could do. So I still came to Romania. But now I have a lot of problems with repaying loans,” said S.

When workers arrive in Romania, even if they have not been cheated before, there are various ways of exploiting them

Although Romanian law requires people to work only five days a week for 40 hours, they end up working 12 hours a day, six days a week, according to Uva Raj Lamichhane, a Nepali migrant worker and vlogger from Bucharest.

“If you work more than that, it’s considered overtime and you need to be paid for those overtime hours. Some Nepalis, especially in the hotel business, have to work 60 hours but are only paid for 40,” he said.

Some employers have even confiscated the passports of the Nepali workers they employ. If employees want to change jobs, other problems arise.

Most workers come to Romania on a two-year contract, but employers, having invested in plane tickets and agency fees, are reluctant to let them go.

Bohdan Hossu, president of the Cartel-Alfa trade union, one of the most active in Romania, says the exploitation of workers in the country is an example of “social dumping”.

“In 2011, we had new legislation that completely deregulated the labor market. In essence, it prohibits interprofessional and sectoral collective agreements. This opens the door for all kinds of abuse,” Hossu said. “Even before this wave of Asian workers, Romanians were modern day slaves.”

Nepal does not have an official representation in Romania. Nepal’s embassy in Berlin oversees bilateral affairs in Romania, and its Honorary Consul Nava Raj Pokharel, “the only Nepalese in Romania until 2008”, is the country’s sole official representative.

The business consultant, who is not compensated by the Nepalese government for his work, said: “Sometimes I get 100 calls a day and I deal with papers until one in the morning,” he told the Kathmandu Post.

He said he contacts companies if he receives complaints that they are not providing adequate working and housing conditions for Nepali workers.

“So far, all problems have been solved with a phone call,” he said, “especially when companies take away workers’ passports because some of them don’t know it’s illegal.”

But Sujit Kumar Shrestha, general secretary of the Nepal Association of Overseas Employment Agencies (NAFEA), denied that Nepalese workers were being exploited in Romania, saying that there were few Nepalis who had problems.

“Cases of exploitation and forced labor are rare. Romania is 99 percent safer than the Persian Gulf or other destinations,” Shrestha said. “The exploited are trapped by sub-agents or traffickers. If they go through registered recruitment agencies, they are responsible for their own safety and security.”

Shrestha denied that agencies in Nepal charge up to 1 million rupiah (35,000 lei) for work in Romania, but admitted that they can charge 300,000 to 400,000 rupiah (10,000-14,000 lei).

“Airline tickets are expensive. There are no direct flights. A one-way ticket can cost from 100,000 to 150,000 rupiah (up to 5,200 lei). Then it takes about another Rs 50,000 (Rs 1,700) to send the candidate to India for the visa interview,” Shrestha said.

He denied receiving plane tickets or commissions from agents in Romania for sending Nepali workers.

“The policy of ‘free visas and free tickets’ is in place for other destinations such as the Gulf countries,” he said. “I don’t see any chance that workers can be sent to Romania at zero cost.”

However, Romanian agencies and the executive director of a restaurant chain employing Nepalis confirmed to the Kathmandu Post that the plane tickets were paid for by the employers.

“Yes, it is an investment. Nepali workers are paid about 2,000 lei, which is less than Romanian workers, but we also have to take care of food, accommodation, agency fees and round-trip airfare,” said Daniel Michy, co-founder of City Grill. “In the end, the total amount is about 2,800 lei per month.”

The government of Nepal should ensure that workers are not exploited in Romania

“Labor migration in Romania is limited by outsourcing agencies from both countries,” said Rameshwar Nepal, a labor migration expert who was part of a task force that recommended Romania as one of the potential new destination countries for Nepali workers.

“I chose Romania because it was a new direction and there was an opportunity to sign an agreement between governments,” he said. “A bilateral labor agreement or any agreement will at least work in the destination country because the government there will make employers more accountable.”

Meanwhile, Padam now works in Timisoara, a city near Romania’s border with Serbia, and earns about 3,300 lei a month. He started sending some money home. But he has given up hope of ever getting the money his former employer owes him.

“The boss said that we are like a family and we will be paid soon,” he said. “We were fools to believe him.”