Muscat Representatives of Oman’s elected Shura Council have announced an end to the weeklong strike by Omani oilfield workers that had hobbled operations across much of the country’s oil belt.
Salim Bin Ali Al Ka’abi, Deputy Chairman of the Council, who led a mission to negotiate an end to one of the worst labour crises to hit the Sultanate’s critical oil industry, said on Thursday the striking workers had agreed to resume work with immediate effect.
In a statement to the official Oman News Agency (ONA), Al Ka’abi said many of the protesting workers — primarily unskilled Omani employees of private contractors providing oilfield services to a number of oil companies — had returned to their respective workplaces on Wednesday while others would return tomorrow after the weekend break.
Emergency session
Al Ka’abi also said the Shura Council would convene in emergency session tomorrow to discuss the crisis as well as the workers’ demands. The Minister of Oil and Gas and his colleagues, as well as the head of the country’s largest oil producer, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), and other major oilfield companies and contractors will attend.
The protesters, numbering several hundred Omanis working primarily as bus drivers and helpers, were demanding pay increases, medical insurance, a hike in their social insurance, and a special ‘risk’ allowance to compensate for alleged ‘hazardous workplace exposure’.
No centralised leadership
It was not clear if the pledge to end the protest covered all of the striking workers who hailed from different contractors and subcontractors and lacked a centralised protest leadership. This disparate nature of the protest had forced negotiators to travel from one oilfield location to the next to confer with different groups of striking workers.
Oil output had fallen marginally during the weeklong crisis, PDO’s managing director Raoul Restucci revealed late last week.
