Macau casino workers protest over pay, sackings
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 02 May, 2015, 2:44am
UPDATED : Saturday, 02 May, 2015, 2:44am
Stuart Lau in Macau [email protected]
Hundreds of gaming workers took to Macau's streets yesterday to call for better pay and protest against what they see as a rise in the number of unreasonable dismissals, as casino revenue suffers from the mainland's crackdown on corruption.
Macau casino workers join a march to call for better pay and an end to unfair sackings. Photo: David Wong
The protest comes as the government is set to initiate a study this year that will form the basis of the licence renewal exercise for gaming operators.
In March, Macau registered a 39.4 per cent decline in year-on-year gaming revenue. It was the tenth monthly drop in a row.
Angry workers said casinos had recently started adopting a practice to "indiscriminately" issue warning letters that in the worst case could result in dismissal.
"Someone I know received a warning letter because he was caught chatting with a colleague when there were no gamblers there," said croupier Vincent Leong.
Another colleague, Leong said, had received a letter simply because he was spotted yawning. "Who wouldn't yawn if he had to work at midnight? It's just human nature," he complained.
Another protesting croupier, Gigi Chung Yin-mei, expressed concern over the government's failure to act to curb the importation of non-local workers.
These workers, though prohibited from becoming relatively well-paid croupiers, were ubiquitous in other jobs within casinos, such as in food and beverage and hotels, she said.
"When casinos keep hiring from overseas, they will ultimately weaken the competitiveness of the local workforce and exploit us in terms of remuneration," said Chung, who is in her mid-40s.
Antonio Ng Kuok-cheong, a pro-democracy lawmaker in Macau, told participants before the march started that the government had persistently refused to disclose statistics about casinos' hiring of foreign workers.
Ng added that casinos had denied issuing warning letters or dismissing staff unreasonably.
Macau Gaming Industry Frontline, one of about a dozen groups organising yesterday's protest, claims that 35 per cent of jobs in casinos have gone to non-locals.
Most of them are from the mainland and Southeast Asian countries.
The group added that the government should require casinos to link pay rises to inflation as a condition for renewing licences.
Six contracts will expire between 2020 and 2022. The government has not said how many licences it will grant or whether sub-concessionaires will finally get their own permits.
The government will consider issues such as the proportion of non-gaming elements in a casino's business and whether they should source products locally.
