Workers in the casino and hotel operations of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd are petitioning the Hong Kong-listed company for an increase in salaries. A group of workers delivered a petition to Galaxy Entertainment’s corporate offices on Tuesday.
About 500 Galaxy Entertainment workers signed the petition, said Ieong Man Teng, president of the Forefront of the Macao Gaming, a labour group supporting the petition.
“Galaxy Entertainment regrets and is deeply concerned regarding the event that took place today [Tuesday],” the company’s vice president of public relations, Buddy Lam, told GGRAsia in a written reply.
“Galaxy Entertainment constantly maintains an open communication channel with our team members to encourage resolving problems with a tolerant and appropriate attitude,” Mr Lam said. “Galaxy Entertainment will continue to address the questions that were brought forward with the team members directly and we are confident that through internal communication, this situation will be completely resolved,” he added.
The petition from Galaxy Entertainment’s workers follows a similar move from casino floor workers from rival casino operator Sands China Ltd.
Both groups are being supported by the Forefront of the Macao Gaming. The association last week promoted a protest outside of the Venetian Macao, which gathered about 1,500 people, according to the organisers.
“If there is no news about the meeting by Friday we’ll go to the Labour Affairs Bureau for help to arrange a meeting… if the operator still refuses to meet its staff we’ll not exclude the possibility of organising a protest” by marching around the Galaxy Macau (pictured) property next week, the Macau Post Daily newspaper quotes Mr Ieong as saying.
The Forefront of the Macao Gaming is also demanding to meet officials from Sands China by Friday (August 1). Mr Ieong has said the group might organise a new protest or even a strike on August 28, the anniversary of the opening of casino resort Venetian Macao.
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. Employees however seem to want more benefits in face of the strong revenues in the gaming industry.
“All gaming operators earn a lot of money… I hope they treat their employees better,” Mr Ieong told the Macau Post Daily.
(Updated at 3.55pm)
