Gaming association pledges to protect local workers

Members of the gaming association were accompanied by lawmaker Pereira Coutinho to the meeting with Lionel Leong

Members and supporters of the Power of the Macao Gaming Association reiterated their promise to keep fighting for the rights of local residents on Friday at the entrance to a presentation meeting with the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong.
During the ongoing mid-term review of the city’s gaming industry, the participants at the meeting urged the government to first take a closer look at the situation for workers.
The head of the Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM), Pereira Coutinho, attended the meeting. He argued that the “labor law should be reviewed in order to provide more protection for workers so they cannot be fired without a ‘just cause’ because the compensation for these cases [in Macau] is irrelevant.”
“Regarding the promotion of local workers to leadership and positions of greater responsibility, they are ‘blocked’ since there are many non-resident workers occupying those positions,” he added, asking the government to make changes in this area.
The idea to form this association started some time ago when, in order to solve problems relating to salary injustice among “casino pit workers” who were being paid different wages for the same function. Some of the founders of the newly formed association requested help from the ATFPM. “After the problem was solved satisfactorily the members decided to join forces to form an association to defend their interests,” Pereira Coutinho told reporters. “We [the ATFPM members] are here to support them.”
To the meeting with Lionel Leong, the association members took a list of three main problems that they wish to see resolved: the improvement of Macau’s retirement scheme; the supervision of changes in the gaming sector during the adjustment period; and the reduction of the number of non-resident workers in order to promote the careers of local workers.
Coutinho said the association also shares the concerns already expressed by another gaming related association, the Forefront of Macau Gaming (FMG), regarding the 80 percent decrease in the recruitment rate in the gaming sector over the last quarter of 2015 when compared with 2014 according to the latest figures from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). Coutinho added that “systematically there are workers being fired without a justifiable reason.”