Know Oman: Is your termination illegal?

Muscat: To check whether your termination is legal or illegal in the Sultanate of Oman, one needs to look at the employment contract among other factors, according to a law expert.

There are mainly two types of contract for hiring an employee – limited or unlimited, explained Yasin Chowdhury, Associate, BSA Al Rashdi Al Barwani Advocates and Legal Consultants, a law firm in the Sultanate.

Talking exclusively to TTV on its weekly show, T-Talk, the expert said: “Under the law and in broad categories, the contract generally falls within two types – limited and unlimited term of contract. If the contract of employment is a limited term of contract, it means the term is for a particular period – it can be six months, a year or even two years – depending on a particular project the employer needs an employee for.

“By contrast, there is another type of employment contract – unlimited– which means there is no bound or limitation in terms of time in relation to the employment contract.”

Chowdhury further explained that when one talks about termination, depending on the nature of the agreement, the nature of termination will also vary as well as the requirements, benefits and also whether it is legal or illegal termination.

“In short, the way it is formulated under the Labour Law of Oman, it says any termination which is arbitrary or contrary to the law is considered illegal,” he said.

He continued saying: “This is a very general formulation of the law but it definitely depends on specifics of the case or situation of an individual employee as well as the interpretation of the court – whether the termination has been done according to the law or not and whether the parties have acted within the bounds of law and the procedural norms that needs to be followed in case of termination, etc.”

The law expert said that in case the employer goes ahead with terminating the contract of an employee, he/ she should be given a fair chance in terms of notice period, and if an employee wants to respond to allegations made by his/ her superior, he may do so.