Association warns of financial mayhem for gaming employees under ‘zero-Covid’ strategy

Police seen patrolling on the first day of “special confinement”

A gaming association has expressed concern that the Macau government’s confinement measures will likely disadvantage employees in the sector.

To curb the spread of Covid-19, Macau has ordered a seven-day shutdown of casinos, non-essential services, and mandates that the public stay at home except for emergency reasons.

Under the mandatory confinement, some gaming companies have promoted a voluntary leave plan for employees to apply the leave in the form of annual or supplementary leave.

“Not every employee has a condition to stop their work for seven days,” said Stephen Lau, president of Power of the Macao Gaming Association, told Chinese media outlet Macao Daily.

Lau said that the lockdown measure is causing a huge controversy in the community.

He explained most employees rely on a monthly salary to meet their living expenditure, which include items such as loan repayments, supporting parents and the utilities bills.

Moreover, if there are two employees in one family, it means that the family will lose salaries for a total of 14 days.

Lau said stopping people work lives means they are not guaranteed enough money to meet their daily needs.

According to the “Labour Relations Law” published by the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), employers are not required to pay relevant salary to employees in the state of suspended work.

“There are some contradictions between the standstill measure and mass testing,” said Lau.

He asked whether the pandemic prevention policies of the government can really realize the national zero-Covid strategy, while pointing out that while the government promulgated the mandatory confinement measure, it also required residents to do the mass testing during the confinement period.

He also expressed concern over the fact that the number of positive cases are still rising despite the government’s call to limit the operations of businesses three weeks ago.

Lau worried that the government has missed the best time to control the pandemic, adding that residents shouldn’t bear the consequences of the government’s “ineffective pandemic prevention works.”

According to a statement published by the government on July 9, all companies providing non-essential services are temporarily closed this week until midnight of July 18. Companies necessary to maintain society operation and residents’ health will not be affected. Staff Reporter