More incentives for private sector employees main.omanobserver.om/?p=29685 Wednesday 13th November 2013 Written by Haider Abdul Redha Al-Lawati haiderdawood@hotmail - The government is seeking to enhance the incentives granted to Omani employees in the private sector to compete with the government sector. During the past year, a decision was issued to increase the total salary earned by Omanis in the private sector to a minimum of RO 325. In addition, private sector employees were granted a two-day weekend, like the government sector, instead of one day. Recently, a Royal Decree No (61/2013) was issued to amend some provisions of Social Security Benefits. It will come into force in early July of 2014. To shed light on this Decree, the Director-General of the Public Authority for Social Insurance, Saleh bin Nasser al Araimi, explained in a press conference held in this regard that the Decree provided business owners and partners to make the necessary arrangements pertaining to the changes made in the actuarial study scheduled to be implemented in mid-2014. It also provides the Public Authority for Social Insurance ( PASI) with the opportunity to gather the necessary data in relation to the allowances that resulted from these changes. The most important findings of the actuarial study is the need to move from the basic wage to the overall wage for private sector employees, which is ultimately in the best interest of both the country and its citizens. There is no doubt the development of the insurance system in the Sultanate aims at attracting more Omanis to work in the private sector, which has today become the main destination for Omani job-seekers due to declining employment opportunities in government institutions on one hand, and the support granted by the government to institutions and companies to train and qualify Omanis to work in all disciplines required by the Omani market on the other hand, which is expected to pay off during the next phase. Furthermore, the Decree includes several amendments contained in Social Security Benefits, such as increasing the accrual factor to calculate pension from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent for each year of service for the last 5 years, which is a major move in salary values, while raising the minimum pension from RO 150 to RO 202-500 per month and the maximum eligible pension from PASI will remain 80 per cent of the new salary basic + allowances. The Decree also included increasing the minimum pension in the cases of non-occupational disability of death from 40 per cent of the basic salary to 50 per cent of the basic salary + allowances whichever is greater, as well as increasing the amount of daily allowances in the case of work injuries from 75 per cent of his/her daily wage to 100 per cent of the daily wage for the first 6 months then as 75 per cent for the next 6 months after which the case will be evaluated by the medical committee which will decide whether the worker can remain in his/her job and receive disability pension due to work injury or to continue receiving the daily allowances for a period to be determined by the committee. Moreover, the Royal Decree increases all pensions — except pensions due to partial disability. To finance the above improvements in benefits, contribution rate is increased by 3 per cent, distributed as follows: additional 0.5 per cent to be paid by the employee (new contribution rate becomes 7 per cent instead of 6.5 per cent of the basic salary) and additional 1.0 per cent to be paid by the employer (new contribution rate becomes 11.5 per cent instead of 10.5 per cent from the basic salary. The government will pay the additional 1.5 per cent thus raising its contribution from 4 per cent of the basic salary to 5.5 per cent. The government contribution to the social insurance scheme will be reviewed after 5-years from the date of the implementation of this Royal Decree. To follow up on these cases, PASI has formed a committee comprising members from the Board of Directors to review the allowances entitled to employees from various companies and institutions. Since these allowances are divided as per temporal or spatial characteristics and some are temporary and others fixed, the committee is required to calculate these figures, set up the relevant standards and incorporates them in the total salary in accordance with the allowance system of each private institution. Generally speaking, these improvements will attract more national labour to work in the private sector in the next phase, especially since the study conducted in this regard and itsvaluable findings will lead to the satisfaction of many private sector employees. Meanwhile, PASI has affirmed that the contents of such studies are re-considered from time to time to compensate for any shortcomings that could negatively affect hurt the situation of employees working for companies and institutions managed by the private sector.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 11:06:20 +0000
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