“I was aghast when the workers came to my office asking me to help them. What upset me even more was that they hadn’t even had lunch that day as they couldn’t afford to have their meals. That is unacceptable.
“Their company doesn’t care about the workers. For them, all they have to do is make sure they meet their targets. Most of the labour force allegedly threatened to quit a few months back and in response, the company told them they were free to quit, and leave for their hometown and not look for another job in Oman.
“Will there ever be a solution here?”
Apart from being criticised for allowing employers to exploit employees, the NOC has also been blamed for the Sultanate’s drop in points – from 70 to 66 – in the Global Competitiveness Index 2016-17, which is an annual report published by the World Economic Forum that assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity for their citizens and residents.
On June 28, six days into the poll, the results were published. And to the surprise of numerous expatriates and citizens alike, the votes came out in favour of keeping the NOC law.
The final results of the Arabic poll indicate that most respondants “disagree” with removing the NOC guideline (62 per cent), while only 32 per cent of voters “agree” with removing the regulation. Six per cent were unsure. In total, 7,117 votes were cast on the Arabic poll.
Results from the English-language poll revealed that 56 per cent of voters “agree” with the NOC rule, while 42 per cent said they do not, with the remaining two per cent saying they were “unsure”. In total, 28,738 votes were cast on the English-speaking poll, thereby amounting to the total number of votes of 35,855.
The polls show that about 20,506 votes went for the NOC rule, while 14,347 votes went against the NOC rule, while 1,002 voters were undecided.
An expatriate woman, who declined to be named, says: “The results of the poll will have no impact on the NOC issue in general. I knew that from the beginning and because of that I stayed away from voting. I have just lost hope.”
The results of the poll, however, have been welcomed by some.
One Omani citizen, Ahmad Ali al Maimany, a human resource executive working for a telecom firm, says: “I can understand why the numbers are in favour of the NOC rule. The Omanis who are graduating from the colleges need a job too. The unemployment rate is quite high here and we need to support the young generation a bit to give them that push.”
In a Ministry of Manpower report, there are more than 54,000 registered jobseekers, and unemployment in 2016 stood at 18 per cent.
A significant proportion of this group, as Ahmad points out, are new graduates. School drop-outs also add to the number of jobseekers, with 6,129 registered as of last year.
Sulaiman*, an Omani graduate in the field of information technology, has been looking for work in vain for the past eight months.
“I do not know if I will ever get a job in the field of IT here in Oman,” Sulaiman says. “Most of the private companies prefer taking in expatriates from India and Pakistan as they sometimes have better experience and thereby more exposure.
“I do not intend to be insensitive to my fellow expat friends but I think we Omanis are finding it hard to get a job here due to the saturation of the expatriate workforce. And how can you expect our country to grow if that is the case?”
Ahmad Ali al Maimany says: “We need to focus on one thing at a time. First, let us get our children out from the streets and into the offices, then let us shift our focus on stabilising the job market for the expatriates.
“But that will take us a very, very long time.”
The National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) revealed that Oman’s population stood at 4,558,847 last month. Of this, the expatriate population stood at 2,054,594, or a total of 45.1 per cent of the total number.
While this is a drop of more than 6,000 expats, the total Omani population stood at 2,054,594 constituting 54.9 per cent of the total population.
But experts believe that expatriates will only rise in numbers over the coming years.
Sudhir*, an expatriate businessman who owns an aluminium fabrication company in Oman, believes the only the way to solve this issue is to “meet halfway” and work out a “viable fix”.
“Why don’t we allow those who have completed a two-year contract with his or her employer to change jobs freely?” he asks.
“There’s a basic decorum that has to be followed when it comes to implementing laws, and it has to be in favour of all parties [Omanis, expatriates and businesses]. Right now, I believe that the reason the NOC law is still being favoured is because a lot of Omanis believe it will aid in Omanisation.
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