Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: Private sector companies who hire part-time students, retirees, and unemployed Omanis can include them in the company’s Omanisation percentage, according to an official from the Ministry Manpower.
The Ministry of Manpower has issued a Ministerial decision, No. 153/2018, which amends some of the provisions of ministerial decision No. 40/2017, regarding the regulation of part-time job in the Sultanate.
“The aim of all this is to encourage students to take up part-time jobs to gain experience and to work in different fields, even jobs that are not their specialty, as this will enrich their CV’s,” said Ahmed Al Khonji, head of the Part-time initiative at the Ministry of Manpower.
The new amendments add “students” and “retirees” to those individuals eligible for part-time hiring conditions, in paragraphs four and five of Article 2. The decision also stipulates that the employment contract must now state the number of working days per week.
“The decision can also benefit companies in the private sector, even if they hired the unemployed, a student or a retiree, they will still be part of the company’s Omanization percentage,” Al Khonji added.
According to Article 3 of the decision, a new article shall be added to ministerial decision No. 40/2017, that states: “Students may be employed for part-time, according to the following regulations.
Firstly: For students of private and public schools:
1. The student must be enrolled in a public or private school, provided that he is not less than 15 years of age and that his employment shall be limited to the business and professions stipulated in Ministerial Resolution No. 217/2016.
2. The guardian’s consent to the student’s request, in accordance with the model, provided for this purpose.
3. The work should be on holidays.
Secondly: For students of government and private higher education institutions.
1. The work should be on holidays or outside the study time.
2. The student’s part-time work shall not deprive him of the financial allocations prescribed by the educational institution.”
In all cases, it is not necessary to receive approval from any educational institution to hire a part-time student, and “the student should be given an experience certificate for the duration of work spent with the employer”.
“With this decision, we also wanted to encourage students who were receiving a monthly allowance and were worried about losing it if they began working part-time. That is why this decision especially states that their monthly allowance will not be affected, Ahmed Al Khonji said.
According to Ministerial decision No. 217/2016, there are 73 professions which juveniles may be employed in, among them are the sale of garments, household electrical appliances, furniture, jewellery, paintings, construction supplies, agriculture products, and fishing equipment.
A study done by the Ministry of Social Development, entitled, “Children working in Omani society” demonstrated that “The majority of children working are in Muscat, and 94 per cent of juvenile workers were males between the ages of 16-18.” The results also showed that the majority of the cases of children had parents with low level educations and an income of OMR300.
“Many of the children in the study were working in traditional crafts, such as fishing at 48.3 percent, sales at 23.6 per cent, and farming and other simple professions that do not require a lot of skill,” MOSD report.
The minimum wage for a part-time employee is OMR3 per hour, which is higher than the minimum wage for a full-time employee, standing at approximately OMR1.8 per hour.
