Muscat: The Manpower Ministry has made it mandatory for employers in private sector to give annual increment of three per cent of the basic salary to Omani employees.
Shaikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Bakri, Manpower Minister, has issued a decision under which private sector employees must get annual increment of three per cent of the basic salary on January 1 each year. In the recent past some companies have lowered salaries and overtime calculations following amendments in the Omani Labour Law.
Keeping that in mind, a clause has been included in the ministerial order to safeguard better terms offered to employees by their employers in the previously agreed contracts. The clause states that the new order of three per cent increment will not affect any better employment terms enjoyed by the private sector employees.
Appraisal
According to a source at the Manpower Ministry, the new increment regulation is only for the Omani employees in the private sector. More than 200,000 Omanis, employed in the private sector in the country, will benefit from the new rule on annual increment. However, only those who have worked for more than six months with the company will be eligible for the annual increment while those with low performance appraisal will not be eligible to avail of the increment.
Meanwhile, the crackdown on illegal expatriates in Oman continued with 1,300 people caught by the Manpower Ministry this year so far.
