Tanfeedh’s recently published roadmap for the future of Oman wants to see 80 per cent of all labour disputes settled before they go to court.

Tanfeedh had organised a series of ‘labs’ last year to lay out a non-oil future for the Sultanate. Last week, organisers published a roadmap of recommendations from those labs. The government body’s purpose is to diversify the economy to tackle challenges that the government and private sectors face in achieving the ninth Five-Year Development Plan, in the face of falling oil prices. In its published roadmap, organisers stated: “With regards to the manpower market and the Ministry of Manpower, 80 per cent of work disputes would be settled at the Ministry of Manpower level.” 

A Ministry of Manpower spokesman said: “We do have a department in place that deals with settling labour disputes. There has been work on strengthening the legal systems, which are directly in charge of legal disputes, but the Ministry of Manpower has been supporting researchers and inspectors within the department through various workshops and training, so that they are able to settle cases in a friendly manner and reach a resolution. The goal is to be able to solve labour disputes before they are irreconcilable and go to court, which will hopefully be 80 per cent of the cases in the future.”

“The goal is also to reduce the number of cases going to court, especially because when cases go to court, we don’t have a specialised labour court, so these court cases may take a long time to be resolved. There has been work on strengthening the legal systems, which are directly in charge of legal disputes, and there is a growing system of legal professionals who are directly in charge of labour disputes and issues. But settling cases at the ministry level would heavily support the court and reduce the court load.”

Additionally, the handbook also hints at developing and improving the judicial system related to the labour market. In November last year, Tanfeedh labs had proposed that dedicated courts should be set up in the country to resolve labour disputes.

“The development of a judicial system dedicated to labour disputes, which aims to cut down lengthy case resolutions and inconsistent judgments that hinder the ease of doing business in Oman, is needed,” Tanfeedh reported.

According to the labs’ proposal, dedicated courts will reduce the average length of labour disputes from 585 days to 204, which on average reflect a 30 per cent reduction.

Mohammed Farji, a trade unionist in Oman, said Tanfeedh hinting at a speedy remedy for labour disputes is a positive move.

“Now, in some cases, it takes a long time, putting the affected worker into more trouble. The government should consider the Tanfeedh proposals to help the workers, who get stuck during these disputes,” the trade unionist added.

Oman’s National Programme for Enhancing Economic Diversification (Tanfeedh) had released the handbook last week.

The document, which is more than 132 pages long, is currently available in Arabic, and an English version is in production.

The handbook presents the results of the Tanfeedh programme and what was achieved during the workshops that took place in 2016.

According to the handbook, workshop results are not final, but the methodology used ensures continued development and updates by the same participants who reached these findings, and to periodically revise updates to ensure that the community is informed about the latest developments and results of the programme.

The figure announced for the number of initiatives and projects is 121, which were merged into 74 major umbrella projects that are presented in the handbook.

Source: Timesofoman