[Oman-L] Oman takes steps to legalise overstaying expat workers

[Joachim Duester]

Oman takes steps to legalise overstaying expat workers
   

Khaleej Times - 01 March, 2007

Oman's labour authorities have announced new measures,
including partially writing off fees and penalties, in
a new bid to legalise status of overstaying expatriate
workers.

Accordingly, all outstanding fines and fees, payable
by both the erring workers and their employers,
accrued up to the end of 1993 have been written off,
Labour Affairs Under-secretary Sayyid Hamad bin Hilal
Al Busaidy told a Press conference here.

For the period between 1994 and 2001, the ministry has
waived 50 per cent of the unpaid labour fees and 100
per cent of all penalties. Also, all fines for 2002
and 2003 have been cancelled, while the pending fees
for this period must be paid in full.

For 2004, 50 per cent of the outstanding fines have
been waived, but the fees have to paid in full.

The ministry has allowed companies and individual
sponsors a grace period of four month to contact it
with all details about defaulting workers. It will
start processing such cases from Saturday.

Sayyid Hamad noted that regulating the labour market
and creating an integrated database for the country's
workforce was one of the recommendations of the third
national manpower employment forum.

A committee consisting of representatives from the
ministries of finance, national economy, commerce and
industry and manpower and the Royal Oman Police (ROP)
was formed to verify and rectify all data on
expatriate labour in the ministry's records.

The committee, Sayyid Hamad said, had completed its
task that revealed “large amounts of overdue and
pending payments emanating from establishments and
individuals”.

The new steps are based on the committee's proposals.

Non-payment of outstanding fees, he explained, was
mainly due to non-renewal of labour cards, adding:
“All of this has been coordinated in the context of a
partnership between private and public sectors
represented by the OCCI. On this basis, processes and
procedures have been planned and are to be put in
place.”

He said companies and individuals would be obliged to
bear the legal consequences of any incorrect data
supplied by them, and the ministry would take
necessary legal action to collect corresponding
outstanding amounts once specified periods for
payments had expired.