Macau labour group seeks Sands talks

The Macau Gaming Industry Frontline Workers trade union is pushing Sands China for talks with workers over pay, according to local media reports.

About 200 Sands China croupiers, inspectors and supervisors have complained about pay at a meeting with Labour Affairs Bureau officials.

Last week a group known as the Forefront of Macau Gaming staged a demonstration outside of the Venetian Macau, prompting the company to put out a statement defending its employee-benefits package.

Sands China said it regretted the protest. The company pointed to its recently announced plan to enhance benefits under a master plan for employee packages. These included earlier-than-usual January pay as a special arrangement in light of the Chinese New Year holiday; the payment of a bonus in February to all eligible full-time team members; a company-wide 5 per cent salary increase in March; and a special award of one-month’s additional salary for all manager grade and below team members in July, to be paid annually through 2017.

The protests come amid mounting competition for a shrinking number of casino workers, with the opening of new integrated resorts coming on line from next year likely to exacerbate the situation.

The gaming industry’s workforce shrank to 80,100 from 81,600 in the second quarter of this year, official data show.

 

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