Those working in either Macau’s “gaming and tourism industry” or its “hotel and catering industry” were the local employees most likely to be subject to company-arranged unpaid leave, according to a survey earlier this year by the traditionalist labour group, the Macau Federation of Trade Unions, and the Macau Economic Association.
The survey was done via questionnaire in March and April. Answers were received from a total of 6,730 workers across various sectors in the city. Of the sample, 19.3 percent – or 1,299 respondents – were from the “gaming and tourism industry”, according to a summary report of the findings, published on Sunday by the labour group.
About 30.7 percent of the 1,299 “gaming and tourism industry” respondents said they had experienced an unpaid-leave arrangement, the summary stated. Such a scenario accounted, on average, for 7.4 working days a month.
Last year, a survey by a labour grouping affiliated to the Macau Federation of Trade Unions, suggested 60 percent of casino staff polled had “needed to take” some unpaid leave since the start of the pandemic crisis in the first quarter of 2020.
The summary of the latest poll across the wider economy, did not mention if the survey asked how long the respondents had experienced such unpaid arrangements, relative to the start of the Covid-19 alert in Macau, in February 2020.
Overall, 18.1 percent of the 6,730 respondents to the survey said they had taken unpaid leave organised by their employer.
Over half the “gaming and tourism industry” respondents reported decreased income when compared to “pre-Covid 19 times”.
The survey also found that 73 percent of the “gaming and tourism industry” respondents said they were “concerned” about their work situation.
But only those in either the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) sector; the “wholesale and retail” sector; or the “hotel and catering sector” had a relatively higher proportion of respondents with plans to change job in the “coming year,” in the wording of the poll.
