Macau casino investor Sands China Ltd announced on Wednesday a new round of salary adjustments and promotions for eligible employees. Qualified dealers will be promoted to pit supervisors and all level one pit managers will be promoted to level two pit managers with effect from August 1, the company said in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, Sands China’s market rival Wynn Macau Ltd issued 7.5 million shares under the Limited Employee Ownership Scheme adopted on June 30. Wynn Macau offered 1,000 shares to each of its 7,500 employees.
Casino operators in Macau have been maximising employee benefits in a bid to retain and help recruit staff ahead of the opening of the new casino resorts in Cotai.
There are currently seven new casino-resort venues under construction in Cotai, scheduled to open between 2015 and 2017.
“[The] Macau gaming industry is confronting a severe labour shortage,” Morgan Stanley Research Asia Pacific said in a report last year. The investment bank forecasts that labour demand for the city’s casino resorts will rise by 38 percent between 2015 and 2018, fuelled by the opening the new projects. Many of the jobs to be created will be for dealers.
Macau had over 25,300 dealers by the end of last year, but there were still more than 1,000 vacant dealer positions, according to official data.
“Considering the large size of its workforce, the company must ensure that each phase of its team member plan is launched with careful consideration, taking into account the ever-changing business environment, the company’s competitiveness in the business, and ensuring sustainable workforce measures,” Sands China said in Wednesday’s statement.
Sands China had 25,872 full-time team members as of December 31, 2013, according to the firm’s annual report.
Earlier this month, the operator announced 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. Sands China’s parent firm Las Vegas Sands Corp said on Wednesday that a Macau staff bonus it referred to as a “14th month” payment had an impact on second quarter Macau earnings and thus on group earnings.
