NMA calls for suspension conditions on furloughs

The government should refine conditions for unpaid leave, and salary deduction and their suspension, Rocky Chan, deputy director-general the New Macau Association, recently said.
Furloughs should be practiced in accordance with the law, meaning that they should only be conducted following a mutual consensus between the employer and the affected employees, Chan commented in an interview with local Chinese newspaper Cheng Pou.
However, Chan equates unpaid leave and pay deduction. When an employee is required to take unpaid leave, their salary will reduce. In Chan’s view, this is a derivation of salary cut.
In fact, the Labour Relations Law has provisions governing salary deductions. Item 5, clause 10 of the law forbids employers from cutting employees’ basic salaries, unless under conditions provided in the law.
However, these is an exemption for when it is conducted under consensus between the employer and employee.
For either of the special arrangements, the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) should be notified within a legally stipulated period of time.
“The DSAL has the authority to oversee these situations,” Chan stressed. “My understanding is that the bureau should scrutinize if employers have abided with the law.”
Meanwhile, DSAL has recently disclosed that last year the authority received a total of 214 salary deduction notices from 156 companies concerning 2,450 workers.
In addition, DSAL further disclosed that out of the 2,000 or so employees affected by the action, 1,102 were affected by direct salary deductions, meaning their regular pay was cut by a certain proportion.
As for unpaid leave, not including the six gambling concessionaires, which have furloughed most of their employees across many departments, DSAL has received related notices from four companies concerning 160 employees.