ERDENEBULGAN, ARKHANGAI PROVINCE, MONGOLIA — Allegations of herders abusing their assistants have spotlighted a key occupation that often falls beyond the boundaries of the law.

More than 18,000 assistant herders work in the country, according to the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia, many of whom have little formal education or legal knowledge to challenge their bosses. With few regulations to protect these workers, assistant herders are often overworked and underpaid — a major human rights and labor safety challenge in a largely rural country.

The National Statistics Office of Mongolia estimates that 300,000 of the country’s 3.4 million people are herders. Many herders recruit assistants to help care for livestock. While labor law in Mongolia states that a typical workday should last eight hours, the National Human Rights Commission found that 84% of assistant herders who participated in a recent survey work overtime throughout the year. More than 40% are responsible for their own medical treatment in the event of an injury.

A revised law places some safeguards on the profession, but many herders and their assistants don’t know it exists.

Chuluunbat Enkhbat has worked as an assistant herder for more than a decade, and exemplifies the occupation’s challenges.

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On a winter day in central Mongolia’s Arkhangai province, with the outside temperature minus 9 degrees Celsius (15.8 degrees Fahrenheit), he unloads bales of hay from the back of a pickup...

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