Ethical Recruitment Policy
Introduction:
The company adheres to all the international practices and principles of ethical recruitment. Our staff are equipped with professional code of conduct and trained from international organizations like International Organization for Migration (IOM) and SEDEX. We are an ISO 9001 certified company.
We follow all the national guidance and directives provided by the Department of Foreign Employment of Nepal government. We practice International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS), Responsible Business Alliance- Code of Conduct (RBA-COC) and Supplier Ethical Data Exchange – SEDEX so that recruitment process is fair, transparent and trustworthy for the migrant workers from Nepal and companies of the receiving end. We build partnerships with our candidates and clients to ensure we understand each parties’ goals, vision and mission.
We believe in free and fair employment opportunities for all the candidates and make sureall our migrant workers understand the grievance policy of the company and know where to file complaints if they have any.
This Ethical Recruitment Policy of Sansar International outlines our commitment to a free and fair recruitment policy as well as grievance mechanism, so that every candidate understands the procedure. The policy focuses on principles for ethical recruitment that protects the rights of migrant workers.
Objectives:
The Ethical Recruitment Policy provides a framework to:
- Promote professionalism, integrity, quality, honesty and trust of job seekers, employers and other stakeholders.
- Promote fair practices in recruitment and improve the image, reputation and credibility of Sansar International Services Pvt. Ltd.
- Promote self-accountability and accountability with clients and job seekers.
- Comply with the Nepal Government approved Labour Act of 2017 as well as international practices on migration workers recruitment.
Principles of Ethical Conduct:
Sansar International Services’ all staff must obey all relevant legislation, statutory and non- statutory requirements and official guidelines to such requirements during the provision of their services.
- Sansar International Services’ all staff must follow the highest principles of integrity, professionalism and fair practice in handling all transactions with job seekers or prospective migrant workers, employers and other stakeholders.
- Sansar International Services’ all staff must abstain from activities that set a bad example, such as withholding the documents of job seekers without proper reason or taking token money from them as a service charge.
- Sansar International Services’ all staff must engage with job seekers, employers and the regulatory body in a manner that is transparent, open, honest and of high quality.
- Sansar International Services’ all staff must present job seekers accurate information if any types of fees and costs are associated. Sansar International Services make sure that all the job seekers applying for Malaysia and gulf countries are not charged any kind of fees.
- Sansar International Services’ all staff must document all stages of the recruitment process, in line with the Nepal Government approved Labour Act of 2017.
- All details of a job advertisement must be accurate, complete and clear. It should be published in national newspapers, government authorized online and social media outlets of the company.
- A job advertisement must present job seekers accurate information if any types of fees and costs are associated. Advertisements must make sure that all the job seekers applying for Malaysia and gulf countries are not charged any kind of fees.
- A job advertisement must clearly mention the required occupational qualifications, working conditions and wages for the category of jobs announced.
- A job advertisement must neither overstate or understate the reality of wages, benefits, working conditions, accommodation, bonus, leave day entitlement, health insurance and other living conditions of workers in their country of destination. Similarly, the contractual obligations and challenges that could arise for workers must be clearly explained before any contract is signed.
- All advertised vacancies must be registered with the Labour Department of Nepal government.
- Any job advertisement of Sansar International Services must clearly explain in its job advertisements that the agency has no sub-agent and job seekers are to directly contact the provided address and phone numbers.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must make every effort to protect job seekers against fraud, misinterpretation and unethical practices in the recruitment process for overseas employers.
- Gender discrimination must be prevented by paying full consideration to the rights and needs of female job seekers and endeavor to always protect their dignity.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must be vigilant with job seekers who appear underage for foreign employment, bearing in mind the age limits established for different countries and different job categories by the Government of Nepal and a host country government. No application will be accepted who are below 18 years of age.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must ensure that each worker recruited for an overseas employer has read and fully understands their Foreign Service agreement.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must not misinterpret the medical fitness, qualifications, authenticity of documents and any other required information of a job seeker to the prospective employer.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must abstain from recruiting workers for jobs in which a worker may be subjected to a dangerous or hazardous work environment.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must directly carry out the recruitment process. Sansar International Services doesn’t have any sub agents.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must only use legal and protected means to send workers overseas for employment and must not use such reasons as holiday travel, visiting relatives or business trips for the purpose of sending workers for employment.
- Sansar International Services makes sure that it has issued a written employment contract with all job seekers which is in standard format approved by Nepal government.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must respect the international instruments on the protection of migrant workers’ rights.
- Sansar International Services is responsible to make sure that migrant workers recruited from the company are not in any circumstance in violation of migrant worker’s rights and it must not take any action that may lead to the disturbance or violation of the labour or human rights of migrant workers.
- Sansar International Services must organize a pre-departure orientation for workers to provide them practical information on their contract, living conditions, work environment, responsibilities, laws and culture of the destination country.
- Sansar International Services must make prospective overseas workers aware of the negative implications of irregular migration as well as the dangers of human trafficking and smuggling.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must respond promptly to a complaint made by an overseas worker (or prospective worker) on work or services offered. All staff are trained about the complaint handling mechanism and procedure.
- Sansar International Services and its staff make sure that overseas workers (or prospective workers) understand the complaint mechanism. They should know how to register a complaint and how their complaints are treated. All the complaints from overseas workers (or prospective workers) must be supplied to the Executive Director. The Executive Director will lead the complaint handling committee of three members. All the complaints must be addressed within a week. And those who are not satisfied with the address of complaints are referred to government authorities.
- If an overseas worker (or prospective worker) registers a complaint with the Department of Foreign Employment about Sansar International Services regarding such violations as the provision of false information on the visa or travel schedule, withholding of documents or charging exorbitant service fees, then that Sansar International Services and its staffs must respond appropriately within the time frame specified.
- All disputes between workers, overseas employers and Sansar International Services be settled based on the contract signed between the parties and in compliance with the laws of the host country or under the framework of any bilateral agreement between the Government of Nepal and the government of the receiving country.
Grievances Procedure Policy:
The purpose of this grievance procedure policy is to:
- explain the scope and definition of grievances,
- outline the process for reporting and closing a grievance,
- define the company’s confidentiality measures, and
- describe the disciplinary action steps for policy violations
Sansar International Services informs its grievance and complaint policy to all migrant workers (or prospective workers) who come to our company. Sansar International Services makes sure job seekers understand the policy.
If the informal complaint is not fairly and constructively resolved within a week, the job seeker may file a formal grievance.
Job Seekers can file grievances when:
- They have been victims of harassment or have been cheated by Sansar International Services’ staff.
- Ethical Recruitment Policy of Sansar International Services has been violated or not followed by its staff.
- Job seekers migrant workers human rights, health and safety have been compromised.
- Job seekers are unjust changes made to the agreement
- There is a dispute between staffs and job seekers
Sansar International also recognizes that every case is different, and this list is subject to change, depending on the definition filed in the Grievance Complaint Form.
When filing a grievance, job seekers have the option of reporting their complaints using the company’s complaint letter box, official online portal or contacting direct to Executive Director directly.
In all cases, job seekers will be required to complete and file a Grievance Complaint Form. Once the complaint has been submitted to the HR department, job seekers have the right to attend meetings with a witness or representative, appeal decisions, and depending on the severity of the complaint, refuse to attend the meetings.
When a grievance is filed against office employee, the accused also reserves the right to:
- View and request a copy of the official grievancecomplaint.
- Formally respond to the complaint after consulting the HR department.
- Attend all formal meetings with a representative or witness.
- Appeal the final decision
It is Sansar International responsibility to:
- Accept and thoroughly investigate all Grievance Complaint Forms.
- Ensure that the grievance is resolved within seven days, depending on the severity of each case.
- Treat both the complainant and the accused staff fairly throughout the grievance process.
- Adhere to the no-retaliation policy when employees file a complaint against management.
- Organize mediation meetings with the appropriate parties.
- Practice a high level of confidentiality throughout the grievance process.
- Accept and investigate all appeals.
- Ensure that the final decision is implemented.
- Maintain accurate and comprehensive records of each grievance.
Sansar International Services staffs including senior management team, HR representatives and job seeker who has filed the grievance form are required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement that limits them from discussing the grievance before and after it has been resolved.
If an employee is found to have violated the grievance procedure policy, they will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. The severity of each case will determine the type of disciplinary action, which may include a verbal or written warning, suspension, and/or termination.
If an employee is unequivocally proven to have committed the grievance he/she is being accused of, Sansar International will adhere to its Disciplinary Action Policy to ensure that the matter is resolved justly and according to company guidelines.
Sansar International Services make sure there will be proper compensation to the job seeker if grievance found is genuine and there was serious misconduct from Sansar International Service’s staff which has created difficulties to job seekers.
Obligation to clients, job seekers and customer care:
- Sansar International Services and its staff must maintain an office environment that is customer friendly.
- Sansar International Services make sure that its staff members are trained in public relations and courteous interactions with job seekers, and the senior management team must put in place appropriate measures to protect the privacy of job seekers, with special attention to women.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must maintain the confidentiality of job seekers’ and clients’ personal data, with exemptions for data that is legally required to be shared.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must abstain from engaging in any activity that may unethically jeopardize job seekers’ current or future employment prospects.
- Sansar International Services and its staff must provide job seekers with appropriate advice on employment and placement options.
Awareness of the Code of Ethical Conduct:
- Sansar International Services must display the Citizen Charter on its office board so that all the customers know about it. Citizen Charter includes documents needed, selection procedure, time to get approval from government authorities, grievance mechanism and Ethical Conduct of its staff.
- Sansar International Services must inform its staff about the Code in its scheduled meetings, and the Code must be kept as a living document that is updated from time to time.
Implementation of the Code of Ethical Conduct:
Sansar International Services must take responsibility for the implementation of the Code of Ethical Conduct by its staff.
Reported violations must be investigated swiftly and thoroughly, and any warnings or other disciplinary action must be documented and highlighted in the Senior Management Committee meetings.
Recruitment Procedure:
The following procedure is undertaken for the selection of the required categories. After receipt of the inquiry from Clients:
- Getting Demand Letter from Company with Nepal embassy’s verification
- Pre-pproval of recruitment from Labour Department of Nepal government
- Advertisement of Recruitment explaining required Number, Skill and Qualification on Newspaper, Online and social media
- Getting applications from potential candidates and search on Company’s pre-existing database and contact potential candidates
- Screening of potential candidates and Pre-interview
- Practical Test (if required)
- Interview of pre-selected candidates (Employers’ authorized representative in panel if required)
- Selected candidates will be sent for medical examinations
- Success candidates’ documents will be forwarded to employers for calling visa
- Obtain visa on selected candidates’ passports from Malaysian embassy in Kathmandu
- Two days of Orientation from Nepal Government authorized Orientation center
- Last approval formalities
- Inform employing company about potential flight and other arrangements in receiving country
- Pre-departure orientation from Sansar International Services
- Provide them complete documents and see off them at airport
Recruitment Procedure Chart
