Pereira Coutinho urges new gov’t to raise civil servant pay 3.2%

Lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho has urged the new government to increase the salary of all civil servants by 3.2% in 2025.

The lawmaker sent this message to the government during yesterday’s plenary session of the Legislative Assembly in a speech delivered in the period before the agenda.

Pereira Coutinho urged the new government to increase the salaries of all civil servants by three points on the civil servants’ salary index, that is, from the current 94 to 97 points, explaining that this must be done “taking into account the continuing loss of purchasing power of the majority of civil service workers.”

Pereira Coutinho added that, in the past five years, civil servants, especially those on the front line, have been asked to carry out all kinds of tasks that were not part of their official duties, which was reflected “in the brutal increase in overtime work, much of which has been paid with years of delay and only after several complaints.”

The lawmaker claimed that many workers have also been forced to be “on standby” with their mobile phones available 24 hours a day, including weekends and public holidays, and even been prevented from leaving Macau due to the demands of specific jobs. According to the lawmaker, the compensation for this constant availability is just MOP47 per day on weekends and public holidays.

Pereira Coutinho noted that some public service employers have continued to exploit workers using this availability regime, which is affecting their ability to rest and limiting sleep. He said that although they are being harmed, workers do not dare to refuse these tasks or make official reports of these cases due to the fear of retaliation.

“It is worth mentioning that the vast majority of public administration workers, especially frontline workers, are disappointed, saddened, and demoralized by the continuous and gradual loss of purchasing power due to the increase of prices [for] essential goods,” he said, adding that, contrary to Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s affirmation earlier this week, the fulfillment of the goals proposed in his political program back in 2019 are far from having been accomplished.

“We note that, over the last five years, there has been a low rate of implementation of the 2019 Political Program called ‘Synergies and Advancement, Change and Innovation,’ especially concerning Increasing the Level and Quality of Public Governance and the Accountability of Government Officials,” he remarked. The lawmaker added that “public services are created, or people are appointed to management and leadership positions to their own ‘liking,’ in a sort of ‘Jobs for the Boys and Girls’ [scenario], in which they ‘handpick’ certain people of their preference, bypassing the meritocracy and professional experience of more competent workers.”

In addition to increasing civil servants’ salaries, Pereira Coutinho also called for reform of the general and special careers of civil service workers to be implemented as a matter of utmost priority, noting that there is a special urgency for “those careers with extremely low salary rates which are unsuited to the volume, complexity and responsibilities of the tasks they are obliged to perform.”

Finally, the lawmaker wants to see “more transparent governance and greater accountability for those in power.”

‘Workers’ also call for a salary update

During the AL debate for the approval of the 2025 budget proposal, lawmakers Leong Sun Iok and Ella Lei, both representing the interests of workers, also reinforced some of the requests made by Pereira Coutinho, especially concerning the salary increase for civil servants.

Leong noted that during the five-year term of Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, the salaries of these workers were only increased once and workers have been losing purchasing power.

Lei added a reminder that “society follows the government: the government is an indicator for private companies,” noting that it is very important that the government considers this salary increase as a reference for the whole of society and not just for the civil servants.

Another lawmaker, Lo Choi In, also addressed the topic, although taking a more conservative approach. Lo called for an indexing of the salary update to a ceiling so that at least the workers with lower salaries can see some increase.