Lawmakers submit new trade union bill to AL

Lawmakers José Pereira Coutinho and Sulu Sou yesterday submitted a new version of a bill that proposes to establish a Trade Union Law in Macau.
The revelation was made by Pereira Coutinho yesterday afternoon during a press conference organized by the lawmaker to evaluate the work of the Legislative Assembly (AL) during the last legislative year.
“Today, we presented once again (for the eighth-time) a bill regarding the Trade Union Law. We hope that during this legislative year, which starts on October 16, we can have it scheduled for the plenary [session] and to be discussed in the final reading so we can eventually have a Trade Union Law in Macau,” the lawmaker said, adding, “I’m hopeful that the Trade Union bill that we presented can, this time, be approved so the associations can represent the workers in the different stages and processes, and namely in legal and public administration matters, protecting their rights, as they are the ‘weakest link’ of the labor negotiation.”
Questioned on the topic by the media, Pereira Coutinho added that it is a duty of lawmakers to present bills to the AL, and although the new government headed by Ho Iat Seng has previously given indications of its intention to propose a government-backed bill on the topic, the lawmaker said, “It is not clear when this can happen and we cannot just be waiting for the government,” noting that the resolution of the matter was very urgent.
The last time a bill on the topic was brought up to the plenary was in March this year by the hand of lawmakers Lam Lon Wai and Lei Chan U.
The bill was voted down for the eleventh time, with just nine lawmakers in favor and 16 opposed.
Traditionally, pro-democracy lawmakers, as well as those linked with the Macao Federation of Trade Unions, a platform said to represent some 70,000 workers in Macau, have voted in favor of the bills.
As for the evaluation of the AL’s work, Pereira Coutinho said he was reasonably satisfied with the bills approved during the last legislative year but continued to put the focus on what he calls the “wunderkind problem” of the AL – the lack of transparency in the AL’s work, namely in regard to the Committee meetings, which run behind closed doors.
Pereira Coutinho, together with other pro-democracy lawmakers, has for a long time been one of the voices calling for the full opening of the meetings of the AL Committees to increase transparency and allow citizens and the media to know exactly what has been discussed and the real opinions expressed by the Committee members.
“The opacity of the AL Committees undermines the sustainable development of the political system and harms the supervision of the work of the lawmakers by the citizens and the media,” Pereira Coutinho stated.
On the same topic, Pereira Coutinho noted once again the example of the neighboring region of Hong Kong where there is a specially dedicated TV channel for the Legislative Council meetings and where all the sessions are broadcasted, an example that, in his opinion, Macau must urgently follow.

Coutinho calls for continuation of gov’t consumption incentives

Speaking during a press conference held to evaluate the work of the Legislative Assembly during the last legislative year, lawmaker Pereira Coutinho said that the government needs to continue to pay support to Macau citizens through the e-consumption voucher scheme.
In the view of the lawmaker, the government should not end the scheme at the conclusion of this year but instead should continue it into 2021 by loading another 8,000 patacas into the resident’s cards to be used from January 2021, a continuation of the stimulus to keep the internal economy running.
The lawmaker also said that the government should not consider ending the Wealth Partaking Scheme, a plan that issues cash handouts to all permanent and non-permanent residents once a year, known as “the annual cheques.”
Instead, Pereira Coutinho thinks that to counter the increasing cost of living, the amount associated with this support should double.
In 2020, under the scheme, every local permanent resident was entitled to receive 10,000 patacas, while every non-permanent resident received 6,000 patacas.