New law on retirement: No need to complete 30 years for voluntary retirement

Muscat: The committee supervising the new law on retirement and social security systems on Thursday said that its draft will be submitted to the Council of Ministers during the month of April.

The committee said that the design of the social security system programs is in its final stages, in addition to the completion of laying the foundations for retirement systems, as it includes several programs designs based on national targets and best practices that will be announced after the completion of its legislative session with the issuance of the Social Security Law.

It added that employees who have fulfilled the conditions for retirement in their applicable systems and completed a period of 20 years from the date of the issuance of the Social Security Law are entitled to retire without adhering to the minimum years of service required for entitlement to voluntary retirement, which is set at 30 years, according to what was stated in the Royal Decree (33). / 2021) regarding retirement and social protection systems.

It said that the new retirement system will guarantee the value of the pension for this category according to the regulations in force until the date of the issuance of the Social Security Law, so that upon their retirement they will be given the highest value of the pension between the value calculated in the regulations in force before the application of Security Law and the value of the calculated pension according to the new provisions of the Social Security Law.

This will contribute to creating stability for employees who have fulfilled the conditions for voluntary retirement to continue serving and not have to resort to early retirement at the present time.

The committee indicated that the Social Security Law will address the problems of combining periods of service between different sectors and absorbing temporary and permanent work contracts, part-time work, and self-employed workers.

The committee assured all Omani workers in the public and private sectors that it seeks everything that would stabilize work and find protection for citizens from childhood to old age within the security system.