Labor | Hotel workers stage dramatic protest over unpaid salaries

The protesting hotel staff climbed atop the edge of the property’s balcony. The Fire Services Bureau installed a pneumatic cushion to prevent them from getting injured if they jumped

Ten employees of the Beijing Imperial Hotel (formerly New Century Hotel) in Taipa staged a protest on Saturday, calling for eight months of unpaid salaries. They conducted the protest on the premises by climbing atop the edge of the property’s balcony at a height of five meters.
The action started at around 11 a.m. and lasted for over two hours as negotiations dragged on between the protesters and authorities. Over 20 policemen and firemen were dispatched to the site of the incident, where they placed a pneumatic cushion under the balcony in case of any attempt to jump down from the platform.
Witnesses at the scene told the Times that the workers never really “threatened” to jump, but a policeman said that they couldn’t take any risks. “The threat was implicit in the act, and we had to take it very seriously,” an officer stated.
The protesting hotel staff – seven men and three women, from the mainland – claimed that they had not been paid salaries for eight months or more in a row.
The protest was only terminated after officials from the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL) arrived at the scene and promised to mediate the dispute with management staff of the Beijing Imperial Hotel. DSAL officials initiated talks with the hotel’s management on the premises right after the incident.
No injuries were reported.
This is the second staff protest at the hotel in the last few weeks. On October 18, some 30 employees from various departments, protested about unpaid wages. Some of the protesters accused their employer of “deliberately withholding payment,” and claimed that they have had their pay refused for as long as eight months.
However, according to the Labor Affairs Bureau, the problem affects more than the 30 protestors. A total of 281 employees have complained to DSAL that the Beijing Imperial Palace has failed to pay their wages. Aside from monthly salaries, claims also included compensation owed for working on mandatory holidays, overtime work and layoff compensation.
In addition, the bureau said that they have received other complaints about failures of the hotel to pay employees throughout 2013 and 2014, but these cases have now been settled.
The Taipa hotel’s design and architecture is inspired by Greek mythology. It was formerly named the New Century Hotel. In 2012, it was mired in an ownership dispute. A shareholder in the hotel, Ng Man-sun (also known as Ng Wai and Kai See Wai), was hospitalized after being attacked by a gang of six men inside the hotel. Ng was involved in a dispute with his former girlfriend and business partner, Chen Meihuan, who claimed that she owned 80 percent of Ng’s debt-ridden hotel shares. In October that year, a Macau police spokesman confirmed that Chen had been arrested on allegations of fraud.
The ownership dispute was litigated in a British Virgin Islands court – where the company that owned it was registered – with Ng claiming that the transfer of his hotel shares to Chen in 2011 was intended only as a temporary measure.
In 2013, a ruling of the Macau Court of First Instance (TJB) resulted in the New Century Hotel being seized to pay for unpaid debts that were due to be paid to the owner of a Macau-
based travel agency, Energy Travel Agency Ltd.
The hotel was then renamed the Beijing Imperial Palace. The Greek Mythology Casino operates inside the hotel under SJM Holdings’ license.  PC/Staff reporter