This is to notify and inform the general public that the SHORT-TERM WORK PERMIT (E-Work Permit) is now being initiated by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment. The employers wishing to import foreign workers even for the duration less than 30 days should now compulsorily apply online through BLMIS with immediate effect. Besides the normal required documents, the individual/FWRA/employers should submit the medical clearance certificate of the foreigners obtained from the country of origin.This notification is referred to the approval of the night halt work permits only and for other categories and updates, MoICE will keep notifying in future.

Notification on Transferring Foreign Workers Between Employers & Worksites

Foreign Workers (FWs) play a crucial role in meeting our domestic workforce need, and it is imperative that they are treated with respect and given safe and supportive working conditions. FWs should be able to exercise their Rights and Duties as per the Labour and Employment Act, 2007, Working Conditions Regulations, (amended in 2022), Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (OHS), 2022 (amendment) and other relevant laws and regulations. The Department of Labour (DoL) has the important mandate of ensuring effective, efficient and transparent foreign labour administration which covers areas ranging from Sourcing, Recruitment, Management to Repatriation of FWs. We are in the process of implementing strategies and actions of ‘Streamlining Foreign Workers Management’ reform. In the above contexts and in continuation to our public notification issued on 5th July, 2022, we would like to remind you of the following sections of Chapter XIV-Employment of Foreigners, Labour and Employment Act, 2007:

Section 219: No person shall employ a foreigner unless the employer has an approval of the Chief Labour Administrator to employ a foreigner.

༢༡༩་ མ་ི ང་ོ ཅགི ་གསི ་ལ་ཱ གཡགོ ་བནི ་མ་ི ཅགི ་ལུ་ ཕི་མ་ི ལ་ཱ གཡགོ ་ནང་བཙུགས་ཆགོ ་པའ་ི གནང་བ་ ལས་མ་ི བདག་སངོ ་གཙ་ོ འཛནི ་ལས་ཡདོ ན་མ་གཏགོ ས་ ད་ེ མནི ་ མ་ི ང་ོ ག་གསི ་ཡང་ ཕ་ི མ་ི གཡགོ ་ནང་ བཙུག་མ་ི ཆགོ །

Section 220: No person shall knowingly assist a person to employ a foreigner without a permit.

༢༢༠་ གནང་བ་མདེ ་མ་ི ཕི་མ་ི ཅགི ་ གཡགོ ་ནང་བཙུགས་ནའི ་ི དནོ ་ལུ་ མ་ི ངོ་ཅགི ་གསི ་ ཤསེ ་བཞནི ་དུ་ མ་ི ང་ོ གཞན་ཅགི ་ལུ་ ཆ་རགོ ས་འབད་མ་ིཆགོ །

Section 221: No permit to employ a foreigner shall be varied or transferred to another person without the approval of the Chief Labour Administrator.

༢༢༡་ ལས་མ་ིབདག་སངོ ་གཙ་ོའཛནི ་ལས་གནང་བ་ཡདོ ན་མ་གཏགོ ས་ཕི་མ་ིགཅགི ་གཡགོ ་ནང་བཙུགས་ཆགོ ་པའ་ིགནང་བ་འ ད་ི མ་ི ངོ་གཞན་ཅགི ་ལུ་ ས་ོ ཤུད་དང་བསྒྱུར་བ་འབད་མ་ི ཆགོ །

Section 222: A person who contravenes section 219-221 shall be guilty of an offence which shall be a felony of the Fourth Degree.

༢༢༢་ མ་ི ང་ོ ཅགི ་གསི ་ དནོ ་ཚན་ ༢༡༩ ལས་ ༢༢༡ ཚུན་ལས་འགལ་བ་ཅནི ་ དབ་ེ རམི ་བཞ་ི པའ་ི ཉསེ ་ཆན་སནི ་དག།ོ

Considering the above sections, we remind you to refrain from transferring FWs between employers and worksites and changing their occupations for whatsoever duration without the approval of the CLA or Department of Labour (DoL), MOICE. We are putting all possible efforts to prevent the employers from facing legal consequences of violating the above sections. In this respect, we hope all employers, FWs and any other relevant individuals and agencies would cooperate with us.

You can process the online approval for the temporary or permanent transfer of FWs between employers, location and worksites (Variation of Work Permit) through https://www.blmis.gov.bt/foreign-workers-management. As you know, the work permit is granted to a FW only to work in the approved location and occupation and with that particular employer.

The employers who employ FWs after getting the temporary transfer approval from the CLA are requested to ensure FWs use the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for their safety and productivity. The PPE could be temporarily transferred from the primary employer (to save cost) or provided new. The minimum PPE for the construction and related works constitutes safety helmet, reflective jacket, appropriate footwear, safety harness (for work at height), etc. For more information on OHS, please refer Regulations on Occupational Health and Safety in the Construction Sector (amended 2022) and Regulations on Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare (amended 2022). These documents are accessible …HERE…

Chief Labour Administrator (CLA)

Note: Our first notification was posted on the Ministry’s website and Facebook page on July, 5, 2022, updated it on Dec. 10, 2022 and Feb. 7, 2023 after the restructuring the ministries.

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