Domestic recruitment agency fined, closed down for a year in Oman

Muscat: The owner of a domestic labour recruitment agency has been fined OMR17,770 by the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP) for breach of contract.

The preliminary court in Wilayat Sir issued a judgment against the accused for violating the Consumer Protection law, after he refused to refund customers who extended an advance to help them hire domestic help via his agency. He refused to refund the money even though he was unable to secure them a domestic aide within the contractually obligated timeframe.

The case began when the consumer protection watchdog received multiple complaints from consumers against the domestic recruitment agency’s breach of contract.

"The consumers contacted an agency officer to hire a domestic worker for certain amount of money. The owner of the recruitment agency violated the agreement between him and consumers," the PACP said in its report.

The owner of the agency refused to refund the advanced money to the customers, which led them to file complaints with the authority who then took the necessary action.

The case was transferred to Public Prosecution after PACP's investigation. The accused was fined OMR10,000 by the court, in addition to the suspension of his licence for a year for engaging non-Omani labour force.

The court also ordered the accused to pay an additional civil fine of OMR7,770.