About 200 casino workers reportedly staged protests demanding a 5 percent pay rise and legislation that would allow trade unions to strike and better represent their union members.
Organized by experts for gaming in New Macau, the rally is an attempt by the government to force casino operators to demand that employees be allowed to raise wages.
"We're calling for pay increases not only for table game workers, but also for the rest of the casino workers," said Chloe Chao, president of Professions For Gaming at New Macao.
Chao reportedly explained that most of her group of activists are dealers or casino supervisors, and that she delivered a petition to the government two months ago demanding higher wages to mitigate the impact of local inflation. Citing official figures from the City Statistics Census Bureau, she said the average composite consumer price index has jumped 2.56% year-on-year since November 2015, with only Sands China Limited, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Corporation that operates The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, The Parisian Macao and Sands Cotai Central, announcing wage increases so far.
"We're demonstrating now because this month is when game companies finalize their earnings for the entire [earlier calendar] year and they'll usually make an announcement around Chinese New Year if they plan to raise their pay." "We'll be gathering signatures from our game workers members in support of a pay rise call if we don't hear anything about it after Chinese New Year. We're even going to start a bigger action. What this larger action means is that we can express our requests through demonstrations in casinos."
Chao declared that her organization is also calling for the introduction of laws to better regulate trade union activities, a sentiment supported by local lawmakers Au Kam San and Antonio Ng Kuok Chong. Macao gives people the freedom to set up and join unions and withdraw their labor in the event of a conflict, but a bill that would allow workers to pass the right tools to negotiate with their employers has yet to be passed.
The Macau Game Enterprise Employees' Association, which is affiliated with Macau's influential trade union federation, has also joined calls for higher wages for casino workers in the city. At a separate Monday event, the organization's secretary general, Choi Kampu, reportedly told television and Television that his union was set to offer a pay rise of 5% to 7%.
"With the stabilization of the gaming industry, we think the conditions have been set for casinos to adjust [workers' wages] to cover inflation," Choi told Telefusao de Macau.