Normal Working Hours

Before overtime can even be discussed, it helps to know the baseline. Under article 70, a worker may not be made to work more than 8 actual hours a day or 40 hours a week, excluding rest and meal breaks, and no continuous stretch of work may exceed 6 hours. During Ramadan, working hours for Muslims drop to 6 a day or 30 a week. Any time worked beyond this baseline is what the law treats as overtime.

Consent

Article 71 makes clear that overtime is, in principle, voluntary. The employer may only require additional hours “if the interest of the work so requires,” and the employee’s written consent is needed. The combined total of regular and overtime hours can never exceed 12 hours in a single day, regardless of an agreement between the employer and employee.

Overtime Pay

Where the employee agrees, article 71 sets clear minimum rates:

• Daytime overtime: basic wage for the extra hours, plus at least 25%.
• Night-time overtime: basic wage plus at least 50%.
• Work on the weekly rest day or an official holiday: a cash amount equal to 100% of the employee’s daily basic wage, in addition to the pay for that day itself.

As an alternative to cash, the employer may instead grant time off in lieu, one day of compensatory leave for each day worked on a rest day or holiday.

When Consent Isn’t Needed

Article 72 carves out two narrow exceptions where an employer can require overtime without the employee’s consent:

1. Routine business necessities: annual stocktaking, budget preparation, closing accounts, or discount sale preparation, but this is capped at 15 days a year unless the authorities approve more.
2. Emergencies: preventing or repairing damage from an accident, avoiding the loss of perishable goods, or coping with an unusual surge in work, provided the employer notifies the relevant authority within 24 hours.

These exceptions revoke the employee of the right to refuse, so the trade-off is higher pay: 50% extra for daytime hours instead of 25%, 75% instead of 50% for night hours, and 200% of the basic wage plus the day’s own pay for rest days or holidays instead of 100% or two compensatory rest days per day worked rather than one.

Case Law in Practice

A useful clarification comes from Omani case law. In Supreme Court (Labour Circuit) Contestation 766/2017, an employee argued that his daily rest hour should count toward his overtime claim. The court disagreed, confirming that rest and meal periods are excluded from working hours by definition and cannot be counted as overtime.

You can read the Labour law in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Basil Al-Ismaili

Basil is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, he interned in the oil and gas industry. He holds an LLB in Business Law from Nottingham Trent University.

According to the Basic Statute of the State, royal decrees are the instrument of lawmaking and institutional structure. They ratify and issue laws, establish or abolish specialised councils, govern local administration, appoint members of Majlis Al-Dawla, and set up the Supreme Judicial Council. Senior appointments, including deputy prime ministers, ministers, undersecretaries, senior judges, and senior military and security officers, are also made by decree, as is the appointment of a prime minister. Royal decrees are, with rare exception, published in the Official Gazette.

Royal orders, by contrast, deal with matters internal to the state rather than lawmaking. For example, article 61 leaves minister’s financial allocations, during and after their term, to a royal order. Furthermore, article 65 provides that the committee responsible for monitoring ministers’ performance is formed by royal order.

Some royal orders are published in the Official Gazette, like the granting of an award for special achievements. However, the majority are never published and remain internal to the state. This is not very effective for certain matters that the Basic Statute of the State reserves for royal orders. For example, the crown prince is appointed by royal order, as is the governance of the Royal Family Council. Due to the significance of the two matters it would have been more effective if they were governed by a public instrument like a royal decree.

In short, watch for decrees when the law changes or an institution is restructured, and orders for royal appointments or internal administration, some published and some not. Neither term is interchangeable with the other, and the gaps between them are worth keeping in mind when reading Omani legislation more broadly.

Everyone is recommended to read the Basic Statute of the State. It is available in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Basil Al-Ismaili

Basil is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, he interned in the oil and gas industry. He holds an LLB in Business Law from Nottingham Trent University.

Under the previous law, auctions were only mandatory for concession agreements, and ordinary prospecting and exploitation licences could be granted after the ministry simply verified the applicant’s technical and financial standing. Now, prospecting and exploitation licences must not be granted except by way of auction, though the ministry retains a narrow exception allowing it to assign some mining sites directly.

The previous law required a concession to run for 20 to 30 years, cover at least 5 square kilometres, and be backed by both an economic feasibility study and an environmental impact assessment before it could be granted. The amended law drops all four of these requirements, leaving only the applicant’s technical competence and financial solvency, and the need to specify technical and financial supervision arrangements for the site.

Penalties for illegal extraction have also been simplified. Before, a licensee who deliberately mined outside their own licensed limits actually faced a tougher punishment than someone with no licence at all: imprisonment plus a fine of 50,000 to 150,000 Rial Omani, or just one of the two. Now both offences carry the same fine, 20,000 to 100,000 Rial Omani, but imprisonment of one to three years is compulsory.

These are only some of the key changes made by Royal Decree 69/2026, which enters into force today. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Basil Al-Ismaili

Basil is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, he interned in the oil and gas industry. He holds an LLB in Business Law from Nottingham Trent University.