File labour complaint online from today in Oman

Muscat: National and expatriate workers in Oman will be able to file labour complaints online through the Ministry of Manpower’s (MoM’s) portal www.manpower.gov.om from today.
The system which is already online in Muscat has been widened to cover other regions too.
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“The system will run on a trial basis during the next two months. After that we will stop accepting complaints manually,” the ministry said in a special notice on its official portal. In June, the Times of Oman had reported first that the ministry has opened an online platform for workers to submit their complaints. During the initial phase, 512 people used the complaint portal.
During its first phase, the portal was in Arabic and on August 2, the platform was made available in English also.
According to the ministry, through the online platform, labour complaints can be submitted and updates on labour law violations can be sought.
The online complaint platform states that the complainant should not delay lodging his claim, as per Article 7 of the Labour Law.
Article 7 states that the employee’s right to make any claim under the provision of this law shall expire after a year from the date on which such a claim arose.
Regarding cases instituted before the implementation of this law, the one-year deadline will commence from the date on which the law came into force.
The online platform also clearly points out that an employer cannot act against the complainant for approaching MoM to lodge a complaint.
While explaining the current practice, a legal advisor in Muscat said another way to register a labour complaint is that the complainant approaches the Labour Dispute Department and fills out the form available there with all the details about the complainant, employer and labour claims.
According to a manpower official, other than the online registration of a complaint, all other procedures will remain the same.
Meanwhile, a Muscat-based social worker praised the new service.
“An online facility to lodge complaints is a good move. Easy access to a service that allows one to lodge a grievance itself resolves half of the problems,” Shaji Sebastian, an Indian social worker in Oman, said.