Employment

SASLO has a team of specialised employment lawyers. We advise both employers and employees, on all aspects of Omani labour law. We act for a wide range of companies, both foreign and local, in ensuring compliance with the requirements of Omani labour law, paying particularly close attention to the importance of meeting Omanisation targets.  In this regard, we have drafted employment manuals and internal procedures relating to salary, overtime, benefits, annual leave, sick leave, end of service benefits, and on-the-job health and safety. We also advise clients on labour union issues and pension funds.

In addition, we have devised programs for the processing of employee grievances and developed rules for evaluating employees’ capabilities and, in the event of their unsatisfactory performance, for documenting any reviews and warnings to ensure proper termination and thereby minimize the risk of an unfair dismissal claim by the employee.

We also represent both employers and employees in labour disputes both before the Labour Disputes Settlement Department of the Ministry of Labour and at all three levels of the Omani court system (Primary, Appeal and the Supreme).

Our services include advising ‍on all types of administrative and employment such as:

• issues pertaining to work timings, overtime payments, salaries and allowances;
• different types of leave entitlement and issues pertaining to unjustified leave of absence;
• provisions pertaining to women employees;
• provisions pertaining to part time workers;
• provisions pertaining to minimum salaries for Omani employees and Omanisation;
• PASI provisions, end of service benefits and gratuity;
• disciplinary violations by the employees;
• confidentiality provisions pertaining to employees;
• provisions pertaining to issuing warnings, notices, termination, settlement, dismissal and compensation;
• secondment arrangements;
• trade union issues;
• employment contracts and employees’ handbooks;
• labour disputes pertaining to different issues such as termination, unfair dismissal, compensation claims.

We provide full litigation services for clients, with English and Arabic language capability, from corporate and commercial dispute resolution to employment and Sharia law.  We are regularly briefed to appear before the Primary, Appellate and Supreme Court of Oman, and in arbitration proceedings.

Beyond this, SALSO is uniquely placed by being able to provide legal training services to its clients through its associate SASLO Legal Training Centre (SLTC), an independent legal entity. SLTC offers generic short duration legal programs on specific areas of Labour law and associated regulations for a cross section of industries and sectors. These programs cover basic principles and intent of the law together with practical case studies in the interpretation and implementation of the law. The programs are approved by the Ministry of Labour.