Operators improve maternity/paternity benefits

Monday 14th of May 2018

Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Sands China, MGM China and SJM Holdings have improved maternity and paternity leave benefits for employees.

At Melco, paid maternity leave will be extended from 8 weeks to 10 weeks from June 1st, while paid paternity leave will go from 3 (or 24 hours) to 5 days (or 40 hours) for all eligible employees.

At MGM, the duration of paid maternity leave will be increased to 70 calendar days from 56, while paid paternity leave has been extended to 5 working days from the current 2 working days.

At SJM paid maternity leave will also increase to 70 days, while paid paternity leave will be increased from 3 days to 5 days. Sands is also increasing maternity leave from 56 to 70 days from May 18th, though its statement didn’t mention paternity leave.

At SJM employees applying for maternity or paternity leave will also receive a MOP1,000 “SJM Excellence Staff Center” gift coupon, and employees on their birthdays will receive a MOP300 gift coupon.

In response to the recommendation by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, SJM will also allocate more resources to patriotic education and increase the number of participants for related training programmes, it said.

Melco said its announcement reinforces the company’s family-friendly policies and supports a study recently-published by the Macao SAR Government showing a general consensus among employers, employees and the general public to be in favor of increasing maternity and paternity leave benefits.

“Employees have always been our top priority,” Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho said in statement. “We believe that as we take good care of our employees, they will in turn take good care of our guests.”

In 2016, the company began provided rooms for breastfeeding mothers in all of its Macau properties.

Dr. Wilfred Wong, president of Sands China said “the company hopes team members will enjoy having this additional time at home with their families to welcome their newborns into the world and enjoy the blessings of motherhood.”