Labor groups seeking pay hikes for ’19
Members of the Council for Economic Development in Macau believe the high demand for dealers in the local gaming industry should open the door to non-resident croupiers. But Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong stands by the current policy “not to have imported labor to work as dealers. This position has not changed.”
Leong said that the government is committed to the “upward mobility” of local workers in their gaming careers. “As you know, the proportion of local residents working in mid- and senior-level management in the gaming industry has already been increasing. So these efforts will continue.”
CED member Vong Kok Seng suggested to GGRAsia that Macau casino operators should be allowed to “employ imported workers as dealers under a stipulated percentage” with certain provisions. For example, “when adverse economic conditions hit and the firms have to cut staff, this imported labor could be laid off first.”
It won’t happen anytime soon. Way back in 2014, when he was campaigning for a second term, Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui pledged that he would maintain the prohibition on imported dealers.
Also on the work front in Macau, a number of labor groups say they want to see raises of at least 3 percent for casino staff in 2019. That’s a minimum for the Power of the Macao Gaming Association; Eason Ian Iu Chong, vice president of the 1,800-member organization, says the group hopes to see increases of up to 6 percent to compensate for inflation.
“Our worker members are still keeping their ears open, and of course a pay increment is what they hope for,” he told GGRAsia. “Macau’s economy is at least better than a few years ago when the gaming slump hit, so we think the casino operators should raise our salary and boost workers’ morale.”
And Choi Kam Fu, director general of the Macau Gaming Enterprises Staff’s Association, said his group would urge operators to award “no less than this year”—pay hikes for 2018 ranged from 2.5 percent and about 8 percent of monthly salary.
“We felt that as Macau’s economy is doing fine and the gaming industry here still has quite an optimistic outlook, the [gaming] firms should have the conditions to award their staff a share of their earnings in forms of pay hikes and bonuses,” said Choi.
Cloee Chao, head of the New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association, said her group also will petition operators to be generous in 2019. “In the last couple of years the casinos have been awarding their dealers a pay hike of 2.5 percent per year. I don’t think it really eases that much the inflationary pressure here. For next year we would ask for a pay hike of at least 5 percent for the gaming workers.”
Meanwhile, there’s room for improvement among local casino workers, according to the Macau Gaming Research Association and SGS Hong Kong Ltd. The Macau News Agency reported that in 2018, the MGRA and SGS completed mystery-shopper surveys of 15 casinos and all saw a drop in their Gaming Service Index scores, with an 11.2 percent decrease in the overall GSI score. The survey covered customer service staff, food and beverage workers, cashiers, dealers, security staff and other casino employees. According to MNA, the study showed that casino workers in Cotai offered better service than those on the Macau Peninsula, but “both regions’ services are worse than they were in 2017.”
