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Labor unions in Macau are pushing local casino operators to buy into a voluntary pension plan for local employees implemented by the Macau government. One representative said the city could press them into compliance with a gentle reminder that their gaming concessions will start to expire in 2020 and 2022.
According to GGRAsia, the organization Power of the Macao Gaming Association and Macau legislator Leong Sun Iok of the workers’ group Macau Federation of Trade Unions want casinos firms to join the non-mandatory central provident fund.
“The six casino operators have different pension schemes, but there are practices that employees upon ‘reasonable dismissal’ will not get a single cent of the employers’ contribution to their pension scheme,” said Lei Iok Po, director of Power of the Macao Gaming Association.
“In that sense, the government’s provident fund scheme is better because the employee can obtain the employer’s contribution in any scenario of a labor contract termination.” He added, “The disadvantage with the government scheme is that workers can only withdraw their pension funds at 65 years old.”
According to the fund rules, which took effect in January, employers and employees of participating companies should each contribute 5 percent of the basic monthly salary of the employee to the fund. Both parties can also contribute at a higher level but must notify the fund management entity.
“We do hope that the casino operators can join the provident fund scheme, so that the workers have more choices in placing their money for their pension fund. And that casinos’ act will also inspire other companies to follow,” Leong.
Un Hoi Cheng, vice president of the administrative committee of the Social Security Fund told union organizers in a presentation that the Social Security Fund has received almost 9,000 individual applications and 44 corporate applications to join the non-mandatory provident plan.
Lei told GGRAsia that a contribution rate of up to 7 percent or 8 percent for both employer and employees is a better hedge against inflation. “To protect workers’ rights, the Macau government definitely should have more say in its requirements on how the contribution should work for the provident fund scheme…especially when we are talking of the fact that the Macau gaming concessions will be refreshed,” Lei added.
The president of the New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association, Cloee Chao, also backs the plan. She told the Macau News Agency, “Some of the private retirement schemes in casino companies were not designed to protect employees at all. Some gaming operators have taken money from their pension scheme to pay for their laid-off compensation, although the number of cases was not so big.”
In a March poll by the association, Chao said, every one of 1,234 employees from the six local gaming operators “supported the government’s provident fund system, but they also hope the gaming operators would continue to run the private pension scheme.”
