Our Correspondent
In an effort to create more employment opportunities for its citizens, the Sultanate of Oman will bar foreigners from certain jobs, including drivers in the private sector. This was announced on January 24 in a labour law made to tackle the economic downturn.
“A number of jobs in the private sector will be nationalised,” Oman’s Labour Ministry announced on Twitter.
Under Article 1 of the new law, several jobs, including financial and administrative roles in insurance companies and sales positions in the new and used vehicle sector, will be given to Omanis only. No matter what vehicle, drivers’ jobs will be reserved for Omanis, under Article 1.
Article 2 says that work permits of foreigners in these professions will not be renewed after their expiry date.
In April 2020, Oman had ordered that state-owned companies replace foreign staff with citizens, especially in senior positions.
Expatriates make up about 40 per cent of the Sultanate’s 4.5 million population. Since the start of 2020 and the advent of the pandemic, 17 per cent of foreign workers left the country. Oman now has only 1.4 million foreign workers, compared to 1.7 million at the end of 2019.
