A review of Occupational Safety and Health regulations in Oman

The poor occupational safety and health (OS&H) results in an economic burden of 4% of the total world Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The effective OS&H regulations and it implementation are one of the main factors to achieve an improved safety performance. Different industries are rapidly growing in Oman, for instance, it is expected that the construction industry value in Oman will research to 6.88 Billion Omani Rial which was 2.26 Billion Omani Rial in 2016. Similarly, the construction GDP will research to 15.4% of the total GDP by 2026 (BMI, 2018). There have been evidences which reflect that cost related to OS&H is rapidly increasing in Oman. Statistics published by Public Authority of Social Insurance in Oman which register Omani citizens shown that the expenditures related to OS&H rose from 1 Million OMR in 2012 to 2.9 Million OMR. Although the number of active insurees also increased in this period from 172066 in 2012 to 227193 in 2016 which represent a growth of 32%; however the increase in OS&H expenditures in the same period was 200%. Ministry of Manpower Oman, which is mandated for the implementation current OS&H regulations, data reveals that a total of 1328 inspections were made in the year 2016. A total of 569 warning notices were issued to the companies which were found not complying with the regulations, which is comparatively more than the 2015 where the total number of warning notices stood at 555. The total cases which were referred to the court of law in 2016 were 6, while in 2015 there was only one case which was referred to the Court of law (MoM, 2015, MoM, 2016). One of the possible reasons for this might be a lack of awareness of current OS&H regulations and its effective implementation in Oman.