The number of workers laid off in 2018 has plummeted by 73 per cent, according to a report issued by the General Federation of Oman Trade Unions (GFOTU) to mark achievements during the first four years of its operations.
Between 2014 to 2018, a total of 10,334 expat and Omani workers were laid off by 106 companies, including 5,000 in 2017 alone.
Last year, however, the total number of redundancies stood at just 1,334, a reduction of 73 per cent, and the number of companies involved had dropped to 18, according to data released by the Federation.
This decrease is apparently the result of improved efforts by the GFOTU to resolve issues between the company and employees before the company decides to end the contracts.
A federation spokesperson said: “There are many reasons for the decline in the number of layoffs, the most important is the formation of a technical committee which specialises in layoff cases in the oil and gas sector. During the last period, the committee has sought to find solutions to avoid layoffs before they occur. If the company decided to follow through with the layoffs, then the committee would seek to find employment opportunities for the workforce in other oil companies in accordance with the worker’s qualifications and practical experience.”
The companies which laid off workers during the four-year period were divided between the sectors of commerce and industry, construction, oil, gas, electricity, and water.
“The second reason for the decrease in layoffs is due to the relative increase in the price of a barrel of crude oil in 2018 compared to the same period in 2017, which led to an improvement in the economic situation of companies,” the official added.
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“The reasons for companies to lay off the labour force varied between the end of the project in which the labour force is employed, the liquidation and closure of the company for economic reasons, and the inability to continue its commercial operations,” said the official.
In the case of companies failing to comply with Labour Law, particularly in the transfer of manpower without loss of benefits, the Federation has an active role in protecting workers’ rights and searching for appropriate solutions to avoid layoffs, the official went on.
“In this regard, the federation has represented the national workforce in front of the competent government authorities and formed a technical committee to face the mass layoffs that occurred during the harsh economic conditions.”
This committee holds regular meetings to study the cases and follow up the distribution of national manpower in companies in the oil and gas sector, to ensure that employee wages match their skills and experiences.
As it stands, there is no law so far that insures employees against layoffs, however, the federation is studying the introduction of such legislation.
“Insurance against unemployment is under consideration by the competent authorities; the federation has been carefully following the study, as it represents one of the social protection guarantees that comply with international standards,” added the official.
The General Federation of Oman Trade Unions was established under Royal Decree No 74/2006 to represent the Sultanate’s workers before official authorities and local, regional and international forums.
Following the foundation phase of the GFOTU, which took place between 2010 and 2013, the federation issued a performance report on March 2019 which looked at its production and achievements during the first phase of the federation from 2014 to 2018. The first phase focused on workers in the private sector, trade union and related issues.
Otbah Al Harmali, the head of the Oman Academy at the SME Development Fund, said it was particularly important for employees to stay relevant in today’s work culture.
“First, you have to identify and train the competencies required for each sector. Then, you must train people for not just that sector, but to improve his general skills as well, because each sector requires a different skill set and some of these are transferable. This must be jointly done by the companies and a training fund that trains for employment.”
“We train people towards businesses, but the trainees ask us, for example, why they must choose one particular sector in which to work, instead of any other, because they sometimes don’t have access to this information. They choose their specialisations sometimes because there is a scholarship available for them to study that subject, not because they want to or are able to do that job.”
An employment advisor at a university campus in Oman added that students were often concerned about the importance of keeping their skills up to date.
“Today, whenever people from the industry come to talk to our students, one of the most common questions that is asked is how important it is to always learn new things and update their skills, because they know that the skills they have now may not be relevant five years from now,” he told Times of Oman. “It is only natural for them to ask this question because they are trying to prepare themselves for their careers.”
“Many of the students we have will voluntarily take up supplementary projects in our research labs or ask us to write them recommendation letters for companies, because they know the importance of staying ahead,” he explained.
“They also do many short courses online because they know this gives them the competitive edge.”
