'Temporary job contracts to boost Oman's economy'

Expatriate workers coming to Oman could soon be hired on short-term job contracts, under a proposal put forward by the Tanfeedh labs, a senior official from the Ministry of Manpower has confirmed.

In a ‘roadmap’ handbook released by Tanfeedh last week, the government body created last year to diversify the economy away from oil and gas dependence states that short term contracts would benefit the economy and provide more jobs for young, skilled Omanis.

The report states: “This initiative aims to provide employment opportunities for part-time work in the private sector for workers and job seekers who are Omani, in addition to enhancing the flexibility of the non-Omani labour movement affiliated and registered within the same entity. It is aimed at allowing the recruitment of non-Omani workers with temporary licenses in some specialised professions.”

Report authors have told Times of Oman that the plan is currently being appraised by government lawyers. An official at the Ministry of Manpower said that part time work is currently not available for non-Omanis, but there is an initiative to provide short-term temporary contracts.

‘If a project needs a year of work, a worker could be offered a three month, six month, or a nine month contract for example as a means to just join a project for the completion of the project. This system is partly in place, but there may be developments in specifying the field of work and specialty for the worker,” the official said.

Regarding flexibility of non-Omani workers, the official said that the initiative is that such workers will be allowed to move between different branches, or businesses under the same business owner.

“For example, if a business owner has a McDonald’s and a Starbucks, he would be able to move a worker from one restaurant to the other without issue. This is hopefully in the legal works for the future,” the official added.

According to the Tanfeedh handbook, based on performance indicators, this initiative will result in an increase in the number of part-time workers (not students) registered in the Sultanate from 102 to at least 13,000 by 2020, as well as an increase in the number of partially employed students to 13,000 by 2020.

However, the handbook clearly says that small and medium enterprises will be excluded from the proposal as they are allowed to operate with an unspecified number of employees in partial employment, provided that the employer has completed the filled the appointment of the management of the establishment with themselves or an Omani.

Meanwhile, company bosses welcomed the Tanfeedh proposal saying that such open minded initiatives will help Oman grow.

“Many a time, we need employees only for a specific project and that too for a specific time. But we are forced to hire them and provide them two-year job visas. We can avoid such hiring if short-term job contracts are enabled. It will help us to save money and time,” Abdul Gafoor, general manager at Al Shabibi Global Construction Company, said.

Anchan CK, a global investment advisor in Oman, said that adopting short-term job contracts system will help companies to carry out projects in a speedy and profitable way.

“In most of the technical fields, employers need employees only for a short period. If an advanced short-term job contract system is enabled, then companied will be able to hire experts from abroad. Many who are willing to come to take up a job also don’t want to work for two years. They prefer to come for the job and go back when it is over,” Anchan added.

Meanwhile, a trade unionist said that short term job contract is a welcome move but government should ensure that hired workers’ rights are protected.

“We welcome whatever job opportunities are offered. Let it be part time of full time. We don’t mind. Our only concern is that workers’ rights should be protected,” the trade unionist added.

Oman’s National Programme for Enhancing Economic Diversification (Tanfeedh) had released the handbook recently.

The document, which is more than 132 pages long, is currently available in Arabic, and an English version is in production.

The handbook presents the results of the Tanfeedh programme and what was achieved during the workshops that took place in 2016.

According to the handbook, workshop results are not final, but the methodology used ensures continued development and updates by the same participants who reached these findings, and to periodically revise updates to ensure that the community is informed about the latest developments and results of the programme.

The figure announced for the number of initiatives and projects is 121, which were merged into 74 major umbrella projects that are presented in the handbook.