The mismatch between workers’ skills and employers’ needs, and the reluctance in accepting new salary structures are big challenges in redeployment of oil sector workers who are being released due to the negative impact of falling oil prices, H E Salim al Aufi, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Oil and Gas, has said.
“There is a huge mismatch between available jobs and skills and expertise that are needed by employers. It is also difficult to find a match between jobs that are available and salary expectations,” H E Aufi said while speaking at the Oman Society for Petroleum Services’ (OPAL) Oil and Gas Forum 2016 last week.
Speaking to reporters about the government’s redeployment strategy implemented some months ago to protect oil sector jobs due to fall in prices, H E Aufi said, “We have faced lots of challenges with regards to matching the skills to the need of the market. There is a huge disparity between those who are released from existing contracts and the skills that are demanded by other companies.”
He said that lots of workers released [by the companies] have low-level skills or no skills at all, but the market is expecting some skills.
“Unfortunately, this gap is creating a big problem for us to redeploy with ease. Also, there is a huge disparity between salary structure of Omani employees getting from current employers and the salary structure of new available jobs. That difference is finding lots of resistance from employees to accept.”
OPAL Oil and Gas Forum, which was organised at InterContinental Muscat was attended by government officials and representatives from oil and gas sector service providers, operators and financial institutions.
Recently, OPAL officials announced that more than 2,000 Omani workers who were working in the oil and gas sector have been redeployed within the industry. Working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Oil and Gas and other stakeholders in the industry, OPAL is playing a critical initial role in safety-netting Omani workers at risk of losing their jobs.
“We are able to find jobs for everybody but off course we are trying to push for workers to accept new salaries for a while. We have jobs but not the kind of jobs that people are expecting. So, it is very difficult from that perspective,” H E Aufi added.
Source: MuscatDaily