Effective 19 July 2026, migrant workers in Oman’s private sector will be brought under the country’s Sick and Extraordinary Leave Insurance Scheme - Opens in new tab, requiring employers to make monthly social insurance contributions to cover these benefits under the Social Protection Law.
Under the scheme, employers will be required to make monthly social insurance contributions on behalf of migrant workers to cover the cost of sick leave and extraordinary paid leave benefits. Employers will contribute 1% of each migrant worker’s wage to Oman’s Social Protection Fund (SPF).
Under Oman’s Labour Law, workers are entitled to paid sick leave of up to 182 days a year, the longest entitlement among Gulf states, along with other paid leave for events such as marriage, bereavement, and Hajj. Before these benefits were incorporated into the Social Protection Fund’s insurance system, employers were fully responsible for paying workers directly.
Following the introduction of the insurance contribution system, employers will continue to pay workers when they take sick leave or extraordinary leave. However, they will now be able to seek reimbursement from the SPF for the amounts paid.
As per the law, the following paid leave benefits will be available to migrant workers:
Sick leave
Migrant workers with a medically certified illness are entitled to up to 182 days of sick leave in each year of service, paid as follows:
- 100% of basic wage for the first 21 days;
- 75% of basic wage for days 22–35;
- 50% of basic wage for days 36–70; and
- 35% of basic wage for days 71–182.
Extraordinary paid leave
- 3 days for marriage;
- 3 days for the death of a father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother, or sister;
- 2 days for the death of an uncle or aunt;
- 10 days for the death of a spouse, son, or daughter; and
- 15 days to perform Hajj once during employment, provided that the worker has completed at least one continuous year of service with the employer.
The inclusion of migrant workers in the insurance scheme could help improve access to these benefits, as employers will now be required to contribute towards the cost of leave payments and are now more incentivised to pay workers, given that they will be reimbursed by the SPF.
However, it remains to be seen how the scheme will operate in practice. In other Gulf countries, such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where state social insurance institutions administer employment-related benefits, implementation has been accompanied by compliance and administrative challenges. For example, in Bahrain, where end-of-service indemnity is now collected and administered directly by the social insurance organisation (SIO), migrant workers have reported that employers fail to make required contributions, leaving them unable to access their full dues at the end of service from the SIO.
Oman has also included migrant workers under other branches of its social insurance system, including the end-of-service benefit savings scheme and work injury and disability compensation. The implementation of the former has been postponed - Opens in new tab until 19 July 2027, while the latter is scheduled to take effect on 19 July 2028.
