SALALAH, Sept 30 - Oman has made reasonably good progress in an international programme called Decent Work Country under which a country’s conditions of work are evaluated and rated accordingly. A senior official of the Ministry of Manpower called the Sultanate’s achievements as consistent and systematic as per the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and its ongoing programmes. In an interview with the Observer, Abdullah Murad al Mullahi, Director of International Organisations and Foreign Relations at the Minister’s Office, said Oman’s track record as per labour standards is very good, as it has been maintaining a decent level among the good practices suggested by the ILO.
Al Mullahi was one of the participants at the first international workshop on labour norms held in Salalah recently.
“In some areas we have even achieved better than the standards suggested by the ILO and so far we have achieved so many goals through our consistent efforts to emerge as a Decent Work Country.”
Calling the Oman’s journey and its participation in the ILO’s Decent Work Country Programme as “very important”, al Mullahi said, “the programme started in 2010 for four years under a memorandum of understanding signed between the Ministry of Manpower, Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) as representative of employees and General Federation for Trade Unions (GFTU) as representative of workers with the ILO.”
“The programme was renewed in 2014 for two years and it entered into its third phase in 2017 with subsequent renewal of the MoU. The Sultanate is in the third phase now. In the past two phases more than 1,000 participants benefitted from trainings and respective upgrades in the sector,” he said.
According to the ILO, the Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCPs) have been established as the main vehicle for delivery of ILO support to countries. DWCPs have two basic objectives. “They promote decent work as a key component of national development strategies. At the same time, they organise ILO knowledge, instruments, advocacy and cooperation at the service of tripartite constituents in a results-based framework to advance the Decent Work Agenda within the fields of comparative advantage of the organisation. Tripartism and social dialogue are central to the planning and implementation of a coherent and integrated ILO programme of assistance to constituents in member states.”
Al Mullahi cited the comments of the ILO partners who said that Oman has made very good progress in DWCP and ratified most of the standards to emerge as a decent work country.
Commenting on those standards, Al Mullahi quoted an ILO document which stated that “The DCWP is a common commitment of the government, workers’ and employers’ organisations and the ILO to collaborate on specific objectives aiming at improving employment conditions, social justice and equity, in line with national development plans. This document defines the priorities based on an analysis of the labour issues, identifying results to be achieved and strategies for implementation within a defined period of time.”
Kaushalendra Singh
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