The director of the Labor Affairs Bureau, Wong Chi Hong
The Legislative Assembly (AL) gathered yesterday afternoon in a plenary session exclusively dedicated to replies from the government to spoken enquiries from lawmakers.
One of the highlight topics of the session, accounting for seven of the 12 total enquiries during the session, concerned proposals for extra restrictions on non-resident workers (TNR). Specifically, the director of the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL), Wong Chi Hong, unveiled plans to raise the quantity of residents working in management positions in the gaming industry.
In the city’s first Five-Year Development Plan, one of the goals was to have 85 percent of casino upper and middle management in the territory composed of Macau residents by 2020. With the proportion increasing from 81.9 percent in January 2015 to 84.8 percent in September 2016, according to figures provided by the DSAL, this target has been pushed forward to the end of this year. “The government hopes that in 2017 this percentage will hit 85 per cent when it comes to local managers and top executives,” said Wong Chi Hong. It seems there are over 100 non-local workers on resort facility management. And we have already told the gaming companies we will not renew those work permits,” he added.
However, concerns regarding non-resident workers discussed in yesterday’s plenary session extended far beyond casino executives, including the contentious issue of local versus imported drivers.
Kwan Tsui Hang was the first to address the issue of non-resident workers, calling for government intervention over what she considers to be a violation of the driver’s special licenses that, according to the lawmakers, have been used to allow non-residents to occupy job positions as drivers – a position that has by law been restricted exclusively for residents.
The basis for the dispute is a law from 1984 that the government has promised to review since 2009 but did not see light until yesterday.
Defending the government, the Director of the Transport Bureau (DSAT), Lam Hin San noted that since 2009 “the government has established a quota of 1,018 licenses dedicated to Chinese based institutions in Macau aiming at better control.”
The reply was complemented by a representative of the Public Security Police Force (PSP) who said that between June 2010 and the end of last year, there were a total of 37,584 inspections, concluding that “all inspected vehicles had records of entry and exit of Macau and no infractions [of this kind] were detected.”
Kwan Tsui Hang in her follow- up question and comments highlighted the fact that authorities “had not referred anything new, naming only the 2009 measures that we all knew about.” She complained that her questions remained unanswered.
Lam then explained: “There was a tentative review in 2012 but that couldn’t be completed since the issue required a change in the Road Traffic Act to allow the input of sanctioning measures.” Lam reaffirmed that DSAT has the intention to introduce a mechanism of quotas “to avoid abuses,” adding that the services are “working on these new rules.”
Ng Kuok Cheong and Au Kam San also intervened on the topic to say that the government is not doing enough and that the rules in force are obsolete.
Au remarked: “The owners of those licenses in the past used to transport goods and people across the border but nowadays they are at the service of the gaming concessionaires.”
Ella Lei accused the authorities of failing to conduct proper inspections – namely the DSAL –
since “professional drivers can’t be imported.”
“There are people hired as cooking helpers or others that then do driving services,” she claimed, pointing to “clear abuse” and calling for an urgent law revision to “tackle the loopholes.”
The debate generated a few contributions from other legislators such as Tsui Wai Kwan and Pereira Coutinho.
Tsui recalled a case from last December when a number of illegal workers were caught by the authorities and were found to be earning salaries well above the average (between RMB10,000 to 12,000 per month). In questioning what would justify the employer to pay such high salaries, Tsui implied that the employers had no other option due to a short supply in the workforce.
Pereira Coutinho expressed his regret at the lack of the presence of the secretary responsible for the field, noting that the directors present had no capacity to answer questions regarding the policies. “These are questions that need to be replied by the secretary. I hope the leaders [of the bureaus] can take the topic to higher deliberation.”
Lam in a final reply added: “We are going to consider this topic in the upcoming [amendment] to the Road traffic act,” adding, “we are already preparing the revision of that legal document.”
But this was not the only enquiry regarding restrictions to the TNR.
The vice president of the AL, Lam Heong Sang, remarked: “Since the entry into force of the law for the hiring of non-resident workers […] the loopholes haven’t stopped popping up.”
The lawmaker urged the government “to establish a ceiling for the TNR in general and for sector and profession; to reinforce the inspection mechanism over these workers in order to safeguard their basic rights including salary and benefits; to establish a mechanism for the replacement of the TNR by resident workers; to put an end to situations in which [the TNR] do not work for the company or employer that requested their import; to aggravate the sanctions and penalties to irregular activities; as well as to define a regime of qualification for the job agencies or intermediary people working on this field.”
In the reply by the director of DSAL, Wong Chi Hong recalled a number of measures taken by the government to reinforce the control and guarantee the rights of the workers highlighting the implementation of the minimum wage for cleaning and security staff working in building administration, reaffirming the compromise of the government to extend it to all other sectors of activity “within three subsequent years of the implementation [of such law],” adding that a public consultation on the topic will be held “during this year.”
Once more Lam noted the “lack of novelty” in the reply as well as the lack of action by the government.
Wong replied that addressing such topics “involves a consensus between both parties” – a task that “demands a great effort.”
Ng Kuok Cheong intervened to ask, “Why are we assuming an ‘open’ attitude to the hiring of the TNR?” highlighting the example of Hong Kong where the proportion of non-resident workers in the workforce is far lower than in Macau.
“The best is that [the number of TNR] wouldn’t be bigger than 50 percent [of the workforce],” added Ng.
Au Kam San urged the government to “assume this dominant position” as “at the moment, the bigger threat to residents has to do with the abuses in the hiring of the TNR,” he said.
Song Pek Kei added that, “in order to hear the population the government must have a proposal first.” She noted that the current lack of action is “harming both the workers and the employers.”
On the other hand, Chan Chak Mo emphasized to the lawmakers that their opinions were uninformed as they are not employers themselves.
“[You say this] because you aren’t aware of the reality of running a real business,” Chan said, adding that it is necessary that lawmakers “think well when they speak and have a real notion of the topic that they are addressing.”
In his final remarks Wong said that the government is currently working on measures to deal with the possibility of tourists entering the region with the purpose of finding work as non-resident workers.
Anim’Art Nam Van to open bids to all spaces
The secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, clarified yesterday during a reply to a spoken enquiry at the Legislative Assembly that Anim’Art Nam Van would open bidding for all its commercial spaces. The announcement complemented information aired last week by the Director of the Macau Government Tourism Office who had advanced that the space would open a public tender during this year.
At the time it was not clear if the public tender was to be issued for all of the commercial spaces or just for the food and beverage venues.
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