‘Hire and fire’ policy for Omani workforce will boost jobs

Energy Saturday 03/February/2018 23:23 PM
By: Times News Service
‘Hire and fire’ policy for Omani workforce will boost jobs

Muscat: A ‘hire and fire’ policy may be the best solution to boost employment for the Oman workforce, according to the Chairman of Anvwar Asian Investments.
“I would say that the government should come up with a hire and fire policy. When we say that Omanis don’t work, I disagree. Omanis do work hard,” said Anvwar Al Balushi. However, he believes that the rule will prove to be very effective for those who aren’t working properly.
“The ones who aren’t working hard enough may be doing so because the hire and fire system isn’t there, and then they become lazy”.
He added, “If that system is there, it tells the Omani that there is no other way. You have to work hard or else you will be fired.”
The temporary ban on expat visas for certain professions, which was announced recently, has been put in place in order to accommodate the 55,000 (approx.) Omani graduates who are on the hunt for jobs.
“Right now there are approximately 55,000 graduates looking for jobs and the government is trying to support them by asking the private sector to provide jobs,” said Anvwar Al Balushi.
He believes that it is the government’s responsibility to provide opportunities for the thousands of young and aspiring Omanis. “First thing is we have to do something for our youth. I think the government sees that banning expat visas can help Omani graduates to come in, but even this is temporary”.
He agrees that the new rule comes with its fair share of risks, especially for the employers in the private sector.
“There will definitely be a burden as when we recruit graduates we need to give them at least OMR650 as the salary and train them”. He proposed that they need to be compensated in some form.
“There has to be some sort of balancing. What we say is the government should give certain compensations. For example, there is an Omanisation target for each sector. If a company has an Omanisation rate of 60% and has achieved it, there needs to be some sort of incentive on tax or if it is industry then on electricity and water so we don’t feel the pinch”.
Additionally, hiring these graduates will also push the companies to cost-cut further.
“If these Omanis are being hired on higher salaries, then there has to be cost-cutting. Some companies will ask their top level senior executives to leave, so we can expect expats in the top level management to be replaced by Omanis”, he said. However, he believes that it will take a couple of years for this to happen.