Ministry of Manpower gives permission to publish information of absconding workers online

The Ministry of Manpower (MoM) has given its consent to publish photographs and information of absconding workers online. However, this will be implemented once the whole system is in place, ministry sources said.

Till then, employers have to complete the process of publishing photographs and information of absconding workers in newspapers.

Earlier, there were four stages to report about an absconding worker to the ministry. “First, the employer had to advertise in a local newspaper and then had to visit a Sanad Service Centre to fill a form furnishing details of the absconding worker. Following this, the employer had to visit a bank approved by the ministry to deposit the airfare for the worker. The employer then had to visit the ministry’s office to deposit the form to finish the registration process,” sources said.

The online process which was introduced in 2016 streamlined the entire procedure and made things easier. The employer now completes the registration process and pays for the tickets through the ministry’s website. “The decision to make the whole process online was pending for a while and it finally got the necessary consent recently. However, implementation of the decision will take time,” sources said.

They said the online process was given consent after debating the pros and cons of the decision.

“We want to ensure that employers don’t file fake absconding reports.”

This article originally appeared on: www.muscatdaily.com