Job Discussion Forums

[tambok17]

I was just with an unscrupulous employer who made me sign a contract with many illegal clauses ( or clauses that very much appear illegal) and who withheld a substantial chunk of my pay and repeatedly lied to me. I went on vacation and did not come back, i.e did a runner ( first ever in my 12 year old career in the Gulf). It was within the 90 day probationary period. I now have a labor card in my possession and am outside of Oman. So, here are my questions:

1) Who do I return my labor card to?
2) Who do I report the employer and the contract with many illegal clauses to?
3) What destiny awaits me as far as the future job applications in Oman? I have a visa in my passport until 2011.

I would very much like to report the employer and send a copy of the draconian contract to appropriate authorities for investigation. Do you know email addresses or people to contact?

Please reply with specific information and only if you know the answer. No guesses or generic Captain Obvious-type answers such as : "google the MOM or MOHE and contact them", or 'send the labor card to immigration/ your employer" or "contact a lawyer".


I am not going to contact Omani lawyers and pay them when I am outside of Oman and have been withheld money from. I would like to hear from people who have gone through similar experiences and who know specific individuals in ministries that I can contact to report illegal practices and email a scanned copy of my contract for investigation to.

I am sure I am not alone in this and I would like to hear from people with real answers.

[Duffy]

tambok17

Regardless of you reason for leaving, you broke your contract. It does not matter if it is within the 90 day probationary period. You ran away.

In the eyes of your employers and the Labour office you are now an "Absconder" and you ex-employees have the right to place your photograph in the Omani Daily newspapers stating this fact.

In my opinion you should "lose" your passport, apply for a new one and forget about ever working again in Oman.

No matter what your reasons for leaving you say nothing about bringing the grievences to the attention of your employers. It seems to me that rather than risk confrontation you ran away.Live with it and look elsewhere for empoyment in your "profession"

Basicly, nobody cares about an absconding employee. NO matter what organisation you try to contact, you will be told that you should have started a grievence procedure (no matter how useless it may turn out to be) in Oman and not have left in the way you did.

Face it guy, you are persona non gratis in Oman from this day.

Learn and move on.

Duffy

[tambok17]

I have started grievances, I protested and written letters all to no avail. Why do you think I should get a new passport if I am not to work in Oman again?
The question is where is the email/ address, etc of officials who could come and investigate what goes on there?

[Neil McBeath]

Tambok,

I am with Duffy on this one.

Having left the country, there is nothing much that you can do, short of going public with your grievances and hoping that you will prevent some other teacher going through your experience.

I sympathise. I had similar trouble in SAudi Arabia over 30 years ago, but you have to move on.

If you want to return to Oman, take Duffy's advice and get another passport. Unless you have a VERY unusual name, a new passport number will will make you harder to detect.

If you have no wish to return to Oman, then keep your present passport and look for another job. The sooner you find one, the sooner this glitch in your career can be explained away.

[Epicticus]

Tambok, you did the right thing. Hopefully, you will have cost your employer money and time. Do as much damage to your former employer/college as possible. Create a web site as I have done and tell the world basically what they are like. Include also their address and location, with a lavish, florid description of the employer as you saw him/her, etc. Search the internet for all the blacklist sites you can find and post their details on them, with the name of the college and employer in bold. And don't just do it once but make a commitment to keep doing it for say, the next 20 years. Hold nothing back. Don't worry about following the rules or playing fair. Don't even think about "doing the right thing". Go straight for the jugular. Fairmindedness and fairplay are foreign concepts to them.
Regarding your labor card, why give it back? Keep it. That will annoy them. Better still, threaten to sell it to the highest bidder!! Enjoy taunting them.
Get a new passport and after a year or two, return to Oman and show your face. Stroll the malls and let it be known you're back (as a tourist), as I have done. That will really inflame them. Ha! Ha!

Good luck.

[jdl]

Tambok17,

Ah, a contrary opinion at last. A sharp contrast always helps to ease an decision or form a course of action. This contrast could not be in sharper focus. Of course neither advice must be followed; but, the extremes have been identified for a more clear 'laying out' of options along a continuum. Well, which option?, what decision?, which way to go?, how do I choose, select, decide?.....mmmmmmm.

Which of the above advice seems most likely consistent and indicative of previously made satisfactory and healthy life decisions? Which advice seems most rational and emotionally balanced? Which seems tempered by the objectivity of reason rather than by the subjectivity of inflamed obsession. Which advice appears coloured with the brighter tones and hues of optimism and positive life experience rather than the duller, clouded greys and pale greens of an institutional existence where clarity and insight are ever elusive.

Isn't life just full of decisions? Some easier than others. Which decision will further your happiness and enjoyment of life?

[Duffy]

Epicticus,

This will be a very short lived thread.

What you propose is only what that prat "Steppy Boy" would do.

Give it up. You are just another (MOD edit) who has had an experience which resulted in your total disaffection with Oman.

Stop interfering with people who have "real" problems (as opposed to your "so called, experiences"

Epicticus/Steppy Boy,

I know you thrive on the attention you get from this forum, so take a little advice from someone who knows who you are - *beep* OFF!!!!!!!!!

Duffy