Retaining its staff has become a challenge for the National Human Rights Commission as the government doesn’t ensure perks to its employees at par with the civil servants.

The resignation of around a third of the staff recruited through open competition over the span of a year has revealed deep dissatisfaction among the employees regarding the benefits they receive. Of the 44 individuals hired in the previous fiscal year, 11 have already quit, according to the commission’s record. Most others, too, are looking for better options to make an exit, Commission officials say.

Currently, only 225 among 309 positions in the national human rights watchdog’s central and subordinate offices have been filled.

“Most of our colleagues are preparing for civil service. The situation would have been different had we received equal benefits,” said Shyam Babu Kafle, chief of the legal service department and deputy spokesperson for the commission. “Everyone is working with low morale.”

Those working as civil servants receive pensions after retirement while they also get treatment allowances and have the Civil Service Hospital to treat them at a discounted price. Similarly, they have insurance facilities and get scholarships to study abroad. If the commission officials’ claim is anything to go by, except for some retirement benefits, they don’t get any perks that the civil servants receive.

One who has worked for five to ten years receives the money equal to a half-month salary for each service year as retirement benefit. Those who have worked between 10 and 15 years get the benefits equivalent to a month’s pay, and those serving more than 15 years receive 1.5 months of salary for each service year.

“Many of our friends haven’t even received their retirement benefits,” said Kafle. “This is because of a lack of proper law in place.”

The commission’s first Act issued in 1997 had provisions for the staff's recruitment, pay and perks.

However, the Act that came into force in 2012 omitted the provisions, leading to the problems.

A financial regulation is in force to determine the pay and perks of the commission’s staff, which also provides pensions. However, in lack of a separate Act, the Department of National Personnel Records, which keeps the record of the government staff for pension, refuses to enlist the commission’s officials.

“The department doesn’t provide us with a Personnel Information System (PIS), which is necessary for the pension. The existing regulation is useless without an Act to guide the pension provision,” said Kiran Kumar Baram, general secretary of the staff club at the commission, speaking at a programme last week. “The state machinery is cheating us.”

The PIS is a computerised database of government staff, including their service profile. Those without it don’t get pension benefits.

“Staff retention has become a huge challenge,” said Surya Dhungel, a commissioner. “Human rights defenders and advocates have to work at risk, but the government remains indifferent to giving them better perks.”

To fill the legal void, a draft bill for a new Act of the commission had a separate section with provisions relating to recruitment, pay and perks of its staff. On September 3, 2024, the commission forwarded the draft bill to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

However, the PMO passed the draft bill to the Ministry of Finance, after omitting all those provisions. The ministry’s consent is necessary to finalise the bill when provisions increase the state’s liability if it is implemented.

During last week’s interaction, most of the commission’s staff, including the representatives of civil society organisations, demanded the government address the problems through the law.

However, a PMO representative was unwilling to include the staff-related provisions in the bill. “The Act will be bulky if we include the staff-related provision,” said Rajendra Chhetri, joint-secretary at the PMO. “I believe we can address the problem through the regulation. If not, we can draft a separate law for it.”