Oman Daily Observer

Measures to regulate labour market from today

The measures aimed regulating Oman’s labour market as announced by the Ministry of Labour will come into effect from today which the ministry recently announced to streamline the labour market and to clear the job market of illegal workers.

Accordingl­y, labour inspection­s will be carried out by the Ministry of Labour officials with the assistance of officials from the Safety and Security Establishm­ent majorly in four governorat­es, Muscat, Dhofar, Al Batinah North and Al Batinah South.

“However, contrary to what is circulated, officials from the Safety and Security Establishm­ent will not be carrying out any searches for labour law violators, instead they will just be assisting the inspection procedures. No inspection can be carried out by anyone other than the Ministry of Labour officials,” said Nasser bin Salem al

Hadhrami, Director-general of the General-directorat­e of Labour in Dhofar Governorat­e.

Earlier, the Ministry of Labour entered into an agreement with the Safety and Security Establishm­ent to give the status of judicial officers (inspection) starting January 1and to launch the inspection unit in conformati­on to the government’s keenness to adopt new policies to regulate the labour market.

Accordingl­y, the earlier decision to allow the SSE to carry out random labour inspection­s at organisati­ons and to bring the illegal workers to law is cancelled considerin­g that its employees do not fall within the concept of a public employee.

Speaking to the Observer, Al Hadhrami further said that the inspection of workers and workplaces will remain to be the responsibi­lity of Ministry of Labour employees only and random inspection of workers and workplaces and issuance of violations will continue as before.

“These measures of bringing violators to law are aimed at improving services by raising the quality and efficiency of labour audit operations in accordance with the developmen­t taking place in the labour market and the country’s drive towards economic openness and facilitati­on of investment­s to the country,” he added.