All three confederation of trade unions and the apex body of employers in Nepal conducted a high- level interaction on the labour law amendment. The union leaders and the employers had reached a consensus to concentrate their discussion on seven major issues. The issues were labour administration, trade union rights and collective bargaining, social protection, labour flexibility, gender, informal sector and exit policy.

Papers from both sides were presented and heated discussions covering two residential full days were conducted on 27-28 November 2003. At the end a joint task force from both the parties have been formed to finalise which issues will have to be added and which ones to leave out in the labour laws of the country. The government and the International Labour Organization have been the observers in this process.

Voluntary Retirement in Public Sector
The National Labour Academy and trade union confederation GEFONT organised an interaction on November 18 to prepare a policy on the Voluntary Retirement Scheme in public sector enterprises so that it could be shared by confederations, federations and selected enterprise unions of the public sector. The three confederations - GEFONT, NTUC and DECONT - and four inter-corporation employees unions, including two from the banking sector, besides seven selected enterprise level public corporation employees union also participated in the interaction. The issue of Voluntary Retirement Scheme has gained momentum as two major state-owned banks of the country - Nepal Bank Limited and Rastriya Banijya Bank - have been handed over last year to foreign management. In order to launch an easy retrenchment, the Voluntary Retirement Scheme has been planned by the Nepal Bank Limited and the Rastriya Banijya Bank. About 2, 600 employees have already applied for VRS. Some branches will have no employees if all Voluntary Retirement Scheme applications are allowed by the banks. Other public enterprises have also begun discussions about their own Voluntary Retirement Scheme.