Employment agencies law to enter into force next year

The Third Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly has reached a consensus on the amendment bill for the law regulating the operations of employment agencies in Macau. As a result, the bill will be forwarded to the plenary for final approval, committee chairman Vong Hin Fai announced last Friday.
The committee proposed that the bill, which will soon be voted on in detailed terms, should enter into force from March 15 next year.
Although the final report from the committee included a petition handed in by representatives of several migrant workers associations calling for the cessation of charging fees to workers, the request was disregarded by the government who decided not to include such a rule in the new law.
In the petition, the migrant workers’ associations noted that charging fees to workers goes against the standards set by the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency.
According to the justification given by the government to the committee, such conventions do not apply to Macau.
Although the collection of fees by agencies from job seekers is still an open possibility in the law, the new bill clearly defines a range of jobs that are subject to the payment of such fees, in addition to defining a ceiling of 50% of the basic salary to be collected on the first month after employment.