Our Desk | Forget trade unions, focus on minimum wage

Daniel Beitler

The new legislators elected and appointed to the Legislative Assembly (AL) last month were seemingly not enough to tip the balance in favor of the ayes when it came to the trade union bill, presented on Friday for the ninth time.

On this latest occasion, 12 lawmakers voted in favor of Pereira Coutinho’s bill, while 15 opposed it.

In previous defeats, those opposed to the bill made passionate (and sometimes ridiculous) cases for why the city was not ready for such legislation, despite clear reference to it in the city’s Basic Law.

In recent years, they argued that it would unsettle businesses and investors at a time when the gaming contraction showed no signs of abating. On earlier occasions the justification for rejection was a lack of prior consultation with the relevant government departments. Some even voted against the bill on the basis that “it would be a burden on the government.”

Now that the city is apparently in full recovery mode, opposition lawmakers were almost silent on Friday, in quiet confidence that the bill would not pass.

I am personally unenthusiastic about trade unions, given the industrial action witnessed in Europe in past decades and its degenerative effect on the community or society that depends on such services. I am also unable to condone the practice of employees holding their employer hostage.

My take is that local residents probably do not need trade unions. The people who might in Macau are the non-resident workers, whose rights and living conditions are under continual pressure from economic forces in the city. Most recently, they include a proposal for a bus far hike that would target such workers, many of whom are among Macau’s lowest earners. But what these workers could really benefit from is a universal minimum wage.

A universal minimum wage bill passed its first reading at the AL back in 2014, but since then has been held up by government stalling. The Secretary for Economy and Finance assured us in January that bill would be ready within three years, though it remains to be seen whether such a law, if implemented, will cover the city’s 180,000 non-resident workers.

As for local workers, the case made that they are in dire need of trade unions, is frankly, unconvincing.

Aside from the fact that they currently organize themselves in de facto trade union-style associations, these workers are in exceedingly high demand in Macau, largely thanks to the government’s protectionist policies.

They command very respectable wages even for a city with high living costs. The average resident worker in Macau earns a similar amount to workers in many western European countries. And here the statistics paint the true picture.

The median wage for local residents is MOP18,000 per month, according to Macau’s Yearbook of Statistics 2016, while the median wage for all workers in the territory (including non-resident workers) is MOP15,000 per month.

Meanwhile, the gross national income per capita (which excludes the earnings of non-residents) was USD64,580 in 2015, equivalent to about MOP519,000 on an annual basis or MOP43,250 per month under a system of 12 pay packets per year. These earnings include, but are not limited to, employment wages.

Residents also receive other perks, including the ability to change jobs, the citizen’s allowance (commonly known as the handout), interest-free loans for youth entrepreneurs, and most recently compensation days of leave when a public holiday falls on a day the employee would usually not work.

If legislators were serious about wanting to protect employees and their rights then they would focus on how to better protect and empower non-resident workers. But then, non-residents don’t get the vote, do they?