Three in four transport jobs in Nepal are informal

Nearly 73 percent of jobs in Nepal’s transport sector remain informal. Drivers, conductors, helpers, and other transport workers often lack written job contracts and have little or no social safety net, according to a new policy brief by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The brief, ‘Informality in Nepal’s Transport Sector: Promoting enterprise formalisation and extending social protection to transport workers’, points to a critical gap between business registration and workers’ rights. Although 89.5 per cent of transport establishments were registered in 2018, informal employment relationships remained widespread, with approximately 62 percent of jobs within formal enterprises still informal in 2022-23, the report said, highlighting how business registration has not necessarily led to employment formalisation.

The numbers are stark. Of 160 transport workers surveyed, none had a written employment contract, only three were enrolled in the Social Security Fund (SSF).