Muscat – International Labour Organization (ILO) has hailed the ‘ground-breaking’ reforms envisaged in the draft social protection law, which the Council of Ministers recently approved for referral to the Council of Oman.

ILO said in a detailed statement that the law reflects an ambitious set of reforms, which will lead to the modernisation and redesign of the social protection system in Oman.

‘This will include the establishment of a unified pension system for workers across all economic sectors, the enhancement of social insurance benefits during working life, and the establishment of life-cycle guarantees for the most vulnerable segments of society. ILO has closely supported the preparation of these ground-breaking reforms over several years,’ it stated.

Ruba Jaradat, Regional Director for ILO in the Arab States, congratulated its partners and constituents in Oman for achieving the important milestone. “The development of inclusive, comprehensive, equitable and sustainable social protection systems is critical for countries in the GCC to harness and facilitate ongoing social and economic transformations. A new social protection paradigm must be at the centre of a social contract that delivers decent work and social justice for all. Oman is showing that ambitious reform is possible, and must be rooted in international labour standards, careful analysis and extensive social dialogue.”

Equitable social insurance system

The ambitious reforms will lead to the integration of 11 separate pension schemes into one single national system, ILO informed. ‘The new proposed pension system balances the different objectives of enhancing intergenerational equity, increasing financial sustainability, improving adequacy of benefits and extending coverage, especially among the most vulnerable workers.

‘The reform also provides for the extension of short-term contributory benefits in case of employment injury, maternity, paternity, unemployment and sickness, and puts particular emphasis on ensuring the participation of workers in all forms of employment in the contributory system, including with an important focus on the extension of social security rights to migrant workers in Oman.’

“This has been one of the most complex and exciting projects I have been engaged in during my career,” said André Picard, chief of the Actuarial Services Unit of ILO in Geneva. “The design of social security systems needs to constantly adapt to evolving demographic, economic and societal changes. The design solutions identified together with our Omani counterparts are both innovative as well as firmly oriented by the core principles expressed in ILO social security standards.”

Fully integrated social protection system

In strong alignment with the spirit of the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No 202), the reforms also establish universal life-cycle benefits for older persons, persons with disabilities and children. These have been designed to be fully complementary with contributory social insurance benefits and will operate under a unified social protection system and administration.