Royal Decree No. 52/2023, Promulgating the Social Protection Law, brings comprehensive changes to Oman’s social security system, including reforming existing retirement benefits for Omani workers to improve the system’s sustainability, establishing minimum social protection benefits and extending certain benefits (e.g., maternity leave, work injury coverage) to foreign workers. As of mid-2023, foreign workers make up over 75% of the total workforce.
More detailed regulations are expected, but employers should start to prepare for the effects of these far-ranging, significant reforms. The creation of individual accounts to fund end-of-service benefits for foreign workers will make Oman the first of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to create funded accounts for foreign workers (the DEWS plan in Dubai applies only to employees in the DIFC), but other GCC states are understood to be examining the creation of similar arrangements.