Legal protection for pregnant women

“As a result of the field visits carried out by this directorate, no labour violations were observed for women working in the private sector,” he added.

Meanwhile, Civil Service Law No. 120/2004 allows female employees working in the public sector to take maternity leave up to five times throughout their service.

The GFOTU has been working on increasing the length of the leave and increasing the number of times the female worker is entitled to the leave, with the goal of making it the same as the number listed in the Civil Service Law.

“There have been cases where the General Federation, through dialogue and negotiations with employers, managed to reach agreements to increase the duration of the leave and entitlement to more than three times, and to grant women workers special breastfeeding hours for a period of six months, one year, or more,” said an official from the federation.

The GFOTU also negotiated, giving working fathers a special leave of three days when their wives give birth.

According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information, there were 63,013 women working in the private sector as of May 2018. A further 72,917 women worked in the public sector, according to the Ministry of Civil Service.

The law also protects the right of a pregnant woman to be absent from work because of a medical condition resulting from the pregnancy that makes her unable to return to work for a period not exceeding six months.

The female employee can also be given special leave without pay for up to one year to allow her appropriate time to care for her child.

Article 118 of the Labour Law states that “anyone who contravenes the provisions of Part 5 shall be punished by a fine not exceeding OMR500,” stressed Al Badi.

The same article states that “if the previous offense is committed again within one year from the date of the judgment, the employer may be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month”.

The GFOTU expressed hope that “competent authorities will oblige employers to provide daycare facilities or nurseries for the children of workers within the workplace so that female workers can take care of their children and so they can have paid time to breastfeed their child.”