Sands China announces 5-pct pay rise from March

Mar 09, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd has announced a 5-percent pay rise for its staff, effective March 1, 2015. The company said it is increasing the salaries of 26,000 eligible full-time team members.

“Sands China is very pleased to reward its team members for going above and beyond in delivering excellent customer service and world-class experiences to our guests,” Rob Goldstein, president and executive director of Sands China, said in a statement on Monday.

“It is their commitment and dedication that allows us to strive for excellence in everything we do,” he added.

The salary increase follows the payment of a bonus on February 16. The casino operator last month said that a total of 27,000 full-timers would receive a bonus of at least one month’s salary.

Sands China is the second gaming company in the city to publicly announce a salary increase for 2015, despite the relatively lacklustre performance of the Macau gaming sector. SJM Holdings Ltd announced a 5-percent pay rise for its staff in January.

Monthly gross gaming revenue (GGR) in Macau has been decreasing since June 2014 as measured in year-on-year terms. GGR in February fell by a record 48.6 percent year-on-year to MOP19.5 billion (US$2.4 billion).

On Monday, legislator José Pereira Coutinho delivered a petition urging the government to press casino operators to increase salaries this year.

The government “should use its influence” to urge the six casino concessionaires to increase salaries by 6 percent, Mr Pereira Coutinho said, quoted by the Portuguese-language channel of Rádio Macau.

The Macau government has already announced a 6.8 percent pay rise for 2015 for public sector workers; a figure above the city’s inflation rate of 6.05 percent for full-year 2014.

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