Muscat: India’s Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, has said on her Twitter account that the Indian Embassy in Muscat has received reports that some companies have not paid salaries to workers from the South Asian country.
Sushma added that she will handle the matter at the diplomatic level and the Indian Embassy provided financial help to unpaid workers and repatriated 80 of them to India.
Local media reported that more than 60 workers went on strike as a company did not pay their salaries or provide them with food as required under the contracts they have signed.
An official at the Oman’s Ministry of Manpower said that it is investigating the issue and will take all necessary action to guarantee the rights of the workers.
“Not paying the salary to the worker and not providing food to him as it offered in the contract is violating the labour law in the country and the employer can face legal charges,” said the official.
The latest figures showed that the number of expatriate workers in Oman is 1,714,522 at present, compared to 1,631,560 in August last year.
Preparatory school certificate-holders constitute the majority of expatriate workers in the sultanate while holders of bachelor and master’s degrees and PhDs have decreased.
The majority of expatriate workers is Indian (674,894), an increase of 0.7 per cent, including 37,291 women. There are 580,300 Bangladeshis in the country now, an increase of 1.7 per cent, including 27,000 women.
