Job Discussion Forums

Sleepwalker · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 454 Location: Reading the screen

My friend is thinking of applying for the College of Technology vacancies.

However, she was in contact with one member of staff who likes her job but mentioned that the staff under recruiter contract are only paid for eleven months with no gratuity paid. In addition, if the semester starts late, they are not paid until the college starts teaching.

I was surprised but, if this is true, the only thing I can surmise is that the staff start in September/October. They work until June and are paid the standard one month's vacation. This means that there is no payment for August and no gratuity because the teacher hasn't completed one year. They sign a new contract in September and the whole cycle begins again.

Can anyone comment?

ETG · Joined: 28 Apr 2005 Posts: 67

There are variations between recruiters. The one I know about paid for all of September, even though teachers started around the 18th, (they paid for the month under duress). Staff will be paid for all of July and get a gratuity and end of contract payment (total of 20 working days). Not paid for August.
E.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

This suggests that one best ask your questions very carefully to find out what they are doing or trying to do if you are being hired. I would suspect that paying for 11 months plus the one month holiday would make them liable to pay the full gratuity under Oman contract law. It sounds like these teachers should be reporting this recruiter to proper Ministry. Under Omani law, partial gratuities are paid for months completed... or at least that was the law... and I doubt that it has changed, but check on it.

VS

Sleepwalker · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 454 Location: Reading the screen

From what ETG says, the staff start in September, teach until June, are paid one month's holiday and given a gratuity. They don't get paid for August.

The granting of a gratuity means that they are considered to have worked a full year (gratuity isn't paid under 12 months service) but they are only paid for eleven months.

I wonder if the recruiters are charging the Ministry for the staff for a full year, paying out for eleven and pocketing the rest?

If this is true, it should given people food for thought when considering offers.

ETG · Joined: 28 Apr 2005 Posts: 67

Sorry for any confusion staff - work until mid July (this is MoM colleges).
E.

Sleepwalker · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 454 Location: Reading the screen

That's good to hear - my friend was thinking of the MOHE colleges - anyone out there with up to date information?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

information on what?

VS

PattyFlipper · Joined: 14 Nov 2007 Posts: 572

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Perhaps? I'm not sure of the divisions of power there. But doing it through a lawyer may move things along. Oman has always been pretty good about following their laws.

Not to mention that at the moment it is only one source hearsay that they actually are trying to avoid paying gratuities.

VS

Sleepwalker · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 454 Location: Reading the screen

My friend was told that they are paying gratuities but only for one month of the two month break.

Obviously, that has an affect when considering a job.

I'm only trying to clarify because, for all the talk of the recruiters on this board, the eleven month payment has never been mentioned and it may or may not be true.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

PattyFlipper · Joined: 14 Nov 2007 Posts: 572

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Yes, their legal system is still a work in progress. They have some good laws on the books, but are not quite sure how to enforce them until a situation gets out of hand. Like when they first introduced checking accounts, and too many Omanis seemed to think that writing a check created the cash to cover it. Then for many years no companies would take checks because they couldn't collect on the bounced ones. They write a law saying that it is illegal to write a bad check, but no punishment if you actually do it. Laughing

(this is nothing if not an interesting part of the world in so many different ways)

If, as Sleepwalker seems to suggest, we are only talking about 1/12 of the gratuity, it wouldn't be worth hiring the lawyer to fight over it.

VS

Sleepwalker · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 454 Location: Reading the screen

Going off topic - if you write a bad cheque in Oman, you can be jailed until the amount is covered. I believe it's also the case in the UAE and that's why so many people did runners when the markets crashed.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

The problem is that they introduced checks in the mid-late 1980's and it took them about 10 years to figure out that they had to have laws and proscribed punishments to control the process. Laughing

When I arrived in '88... coming from a culture where we paid for everything by check, I immediately opened a checking account. And then I learned that no one took checks... well, a very few places did... but only from Western expats who understood the process. It ended up that I wrote exactly one check... a postdated check (which is illegal in the US under the circumstances that it was done) that wasn't covered to buy a car. The Nissan dealer handed me the keys and told me to call them when the check was covered. I told them it might be a couple months. They said 'no problem.' And it wasn't. Don't try that today. Laughing

Oman was like a wonderful small town back in the days...

VS