Our Desk | On abusive placement fees

Lynzy Valles

Last week, the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) said that it is working towards restricting visitors from seeking work in Macau.

Although conducting job searches while holding tourist visas has long been discouraged, it has never stopped hopeful visitors from coming to Macau to find work.

Authorities said that the practice came from different associations in Macau, including recruitment agency groups, who currently accept applicants on tourist visas.

As far as I know, employment agencies are permitted to collect placement fees that are equivalent to the one-month salary of an employee.

Yet in Macau, it has been common for these recruitment agencies to abuse their role by charging job seekers exorbitant fees.

The fees allegedly range from MOP5 per application to non-refundable fees of up to MOP1,000 for a chance to interview with a potential employer.

This practice of charging insane placement fees could bring prospective employees to debt even before getting their contract is signed.

It would be a shame if these migrants move along a continuum of exploitation, in which they could experience a wide range of abusive situations after already being exploited by extremely high agency fees.

In a previous report by the Times, scholar Cecilia Ho said that domestic helpers could be charged an agency fee amounting to six to eight months of their salaries.

Describing the matter as a kind of modern slavery, citing that these people have no labor protection, the scholar also noted that there are very few regulations on recruitment agencies in the law.

Macau even lacks regulations as to how much a prospective employee should pay an employment agency, which should depend on the job role and its salary range.

Perhaps a bill that seeks to ban appalling practices in the recruitment industry should be enforced and prioritized, not only to aid victims of costly recruitment fees but also to establish an acceptable and effective policy concerning the matter.

Although the DSAL licenses these recruitment agencies, there seems to be an absence of regulatory framework governing the kind of placement fees that these agencies charge.

I believe a policy restraining the recruitment agencies to reasonable boundaries would be a more rational course of action, instead of launching new policies that totally ban foreigners from looking for jobs.

Although several pro-local rights’ groups have pressured the government for this bill, wouldn’t it be more problematic that when such a bill has been passed, employment agencies would find more loopholes to continually increase recruitment fees?

If it is currently possible to charge up to MOP18,000 – particularly to newly employed security guards – how can it not be feasible to charge a higher fee in the future, when such a law has been enforced?

It should always be remembered that most foreigners, trying their luck in Macau, are not seeking management-level positions. They are not searching for professional jobs; instead, they are seeking for domestic employment and low-paying jobs that the local community refuses to take.

They should not be seen as a threat to the community but as a significant advantage to the MSAR.

We couldn’t afford to see the region’s image being tarnished due to the negligence of logical and basic policies over appalling situations.

Confiscation of passports, underpayment, secret contract clauses, excessively long working hours with no compensation and the absence of a right to public holidays are just a few of the circumstances that some of them are facing.

Exploitation of the most vulnerable groups in Macau’s working community is a lamentable matter that is being ignored, and it is humiliating that no one dares to address these difficulties.