Casinos called to join non-mandatory central provident fund

It was “strongly suggested” to Macau’s gaming operators that they join the government’s non-mandatory central provident fund system in order to secure the retirement pension of their employees.

Government representatives and a representative for employees from the gaming industry met this week at an event organized to discuss the measures put in place to protect the retirement funds of gaming sector employees.

Un Hoi Cheng, vice president of the Administrative Committee of the Social Security Fund (FSS), said that some gaming operators had already expressed their interest in joining the non-mandatory central provident fund system.

However, according to Un, transferring between the private retirement system and the central provident fund takes time and FSS will continue to communicate with gaming operators.

Un is also confident that the number of participants in the central provident fund system will increase.

Lawmaker Leong Sun Iok, while attending the talk, highlighted that most gaming operators have their own retirement programs. Leong pointed out that, through this private programs, employees who are fired with reasonable cause are not entitled to access the portion of money contributed by employers from the private retirement program.

Leong also remarked that this will not happen within the government’s non-mandatory central provident fund system, and that employees can still access the money contributed by their employers, according to their length of service.

Leong hopes that all gaming operators can participate in the government’s system in addition to providing gaming employees with better retirement protection.

Employees who have participated in the joint provident fund scheme can participate in the individual provident fund scheme at the same time.