Non-management employees of City of Dreams Manila – a casino complex operated by a Philippine unit of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd – have been granted a “month’s basic pay” in full. It will count as “paid leave” as many of those workers have already used up their annual leave allowance during the Covid-19 crisis, said the venue in a statement.
“City of Dreams Manila has announced granting a 100-percent [of a] month’s basic pay (not including fixed allowances) to non-management colleagues effective May 4 as they exhaust their leave balances and are not able to work due to the present quarantine,” in Metro Manila, the recent City of Dreams Manila statement noted.
The announcement added the complex had 6,000 staff. It noted the Manila management team had “volunteered a pay cut as of mid-April”.
Separately, the Melco Resorts parent had confirmed to GGRAsia in late April that the corporate executive team would reduce the aggregate of its salary payments by 33 percent for the remainder of this year. The company also confirmed that its chairman and chief executive Lawrence Ho Yau Lung was to “forgo his salary for the rest of the year”.
Regarding the Manila announcement, City of Dreams Manila chief operating officer Kevin Benning was cited as saying: “We hope that this latest initiative of Melco, along with the advance release last month of the 13th month pay, will help alleviate the challenges that our colleagues may be facing in these unprecedented times.”
The casino, hotels, restaurants and entertainment facilities at City of Dreams Manila – along with other large-scale private-sector casinos in the Entertainment City zone in Metro Manila, have been shut since mid-March.
