This week the spotlight is on legal and regulatory developments in Oman, where the Manpower Ministry and Central Bank have announced plans to introduce a Wages Protection System (WPS) for all private sector companies, with a trial phase to begin on 18 November 2017. The WPS aims at controlling the payment of wages by employers to ensure timely receipt of salaries by employees per the amounts agreed in their employment contracts. The programme comes as a result of implementation of Article 53 of the Labour Law imposing the obligation of depositing the employee’s salary through one of the locally approved banks. It is expected further details of the programme will be released closer to the start date. Employers in the private sector will soon be required to subscribe to the Wages Protection System for submission of their employees’ salaries through the Central Bank of Oman.

Elsewhere, Oman’s Sultan has approved a number of Sultani Decrees including Oman Sultani Decree No. 33/2017 approving the GCC Commercial Transactions Law. It will be published in the Official Gazette along with Oman Sultani Decree No. 34/2017 promulgating the Veterinarian Products Law which will apply to veterinarian products.