Muscat: CASH-in-hand wages will become a thing of the past in Oman as a modern payment system designed to protect workers is rolled out across the Sultanate.
Around 7,086 international and excellent grade companies have already implemented the Salary Protection System (SPS) for 292,990 employees in the private sector as of July 2014.
The Ministry of Manpower (MoM), in association with the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) had implemented the Salary Protection System in February 2014.
This new system requires employers to pay all staff salaries through authorised FINANCIAL service providers in the Sultanate.
Once companies implement the SPS, employers cannot make salary payments by cash but only through regulated channels like banks as approved by the CBO.
"The process of putting in place the Salary Protection System began in December 2013 and we have received a positive response," said an official from the ministry. The aim of the system is to ensure that employees are paid salaries on time and in accordance with the contract.
The system is applicable to all employees in all sectors, whether Omanis or expatriates.
Suhail bin Yahya Al Khusaibi, head of the Protection of Wages at the ministry, said, "Our ministry began to implement the system to protect wages in collaboration with the CBO to monitor private sector companies and to ensure that workers are paid on time and in accordance with the contract in order to avoid disputes."
He added, "We want to ensure discipline in the transfer of wages to the employees' accounts and ascertain that the amount is as agreed to in the contract."
Al Khusaibi added that the ministry will take action in case of any delay in processing the transfer of wages and will take necessary measures to avoid conflicts.
He also said that the system has received a good response from the private sector as it is a positive step in the manpower field.
The system is particularly beneficial to low-salaried and uneducated employees who otherwise can be exploited by employers.
Ghafoor, who works in Al Shabibi Global Company, a first grade company, said that the system has made administrative operations much easier.
"Our company implemented the system around four months ago," Ghafoor informed.
He added that the company has successfully met the deadline of transferring salaries by the seventh of each month.
"The salary transfer deadline is not difficult to meet but the waiting period after this is the main concern for employees," said Ghafoor. Banks sometimes take over 48 hours to process payments which makes it difficult for employees looking to withdraw their salaries immediately.
Under the SPS, employers should submit the list of employees along with their salary details to the ministry through the CBO.
Thereafter, cross-verification will be done of salary details with the database in the ministry. Salary files received from employers will be uploaded by the registered agents and then will be transmitted to CBO and MoM through the SPS, which, in turn, will be approved and transmitted back to the agents for payment.
Employers are also banned from charging any fee from the employee for payments made through the SPS.
While the SPS will be implemented by first grade companies in September, the second and third grade companies will have to run the system from November and the fourth grade companies from January 2015.
The application of the SPS for private sector companies comes under the ministry's efforts to reduce labour disputes between employers and employees.
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