88.5pc women feel Labour Law ‘fair’

Women’s empowerment has always been at the forefront of the Sultanate’s development programmes, a fact confirmed by a recent study. While women in the region are happy at the workplace, a majority of women (88.5 per cent) feel the labour laws in Oman are fair to them despite demands for extension of maternity leave and the like, according to the study jointly conducted by YouGov, a leading online market research company, and Bayt.com, an online job site in the Middle East.

Asma Yahya Saif al Dhakri, Head of Security and Quality Control, Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC), for instance, is the first woman in the Middle East to become an International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Aviation Security Auditor.

Asma is “excited to be part of the project as we face a new challenge every day”.

Her role involves working with the authorities to ensure that her team attains operational readiness, use the new systems seamlessly and apply the standard operating procedures as per international requirements.

“Although there are certain procedures that should be adhered to as in any international airport, we want to ensure our customer experience is exemplary so that we will be among top 20 airports in the world by 2020.”

Zaina bint Hamood al Harthi, Senior Architectural Engineer, OAMC, works in a team comprising both men and women to make sure the new airport offers a unique experience to the passengers.

“We want the airport to be like a museum that represents our culture, religion, language and history. We are working with the National Museum and many Omani artists in this regard,” says Zaina.

A graduate of the Sultan Qaboos University in architectural engineering, her role involves ensuring the final “makeup” of the airport represents Oman in a contemporary way.

Zaina oversees the implementation of art and architectural designs at the new Muscat International Airport.

“Women today play a very important role at the workplace, and it is great to see that companies in the Middle East and North Africa are making increasing efforts to recruit more women and promote equality,” said Rania Nasir, Business Development Manager at Bayt.com.

The three biggest challenges faced by women at the workplace are: least opportunities for career promotion (44 per cent), demanding work environment (37 per cent) and inadequate training opportunities (30 per cent).

Their most important challenges outside the workplace were finding good job opportunities (57 per cent), lack of opportunities to improve professional skills (41 per cent) and lack of opportunities to relax/communicate with others (36 per cent).

Despite the challenges, a majority of women believe men and women are treated equally at the workplace in many areas, including work hours (68 per cent), training and development (68 per cent), counselling and support (60 per cent), recruitment and selection (56 per cent), and benefits (55 per cent).

KABEER YOUSUF