GGRAsia – Unpaid leave persists in Macau gaming, hotel work says poll

Unpaid leave persists in Macau gaming, hotel work says poll

Mar 09, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

A Macau labour group survey indicates the “gaming services” job segment is one of those most affected by unpaid leave arrangements in the city.

In a Tuesday release, the Macau Federation of Trade Unions said its conclusion was drawn from the valid samples of 594 local workers among people polled in February. The data was gathered either via face-to-face interview, or by telephone.

Of the 594 respondents from work sectors across the city, about 56 percent said that their employers have been implementing either an unpaid leave or so-called “care leave” programme in the past three months. Of those defining themselves as subject to unpaid leave, 93 percent believed the policy was likely to continue for the coming three months.

For the city’s gaming industry, “care leave” is one of several special-leave options offered whereby gaming employees can apply to take one unpaid day off a voluntary basis, with the entitlement to one day of additional paid leave.

The labour group said that 84.4 percent of respondents from the sector it defined as “recreational, cultural, gaming and other services” stated they were subject to periods of unpaid leave. No specific breakdown was available for just gaming workers, the labour group noted to GGRAsia.

More than 50 percent of those respondents defining themselves as either in the “hotels and catering”, or “transport, logistics and communications” sectors, said they were still subject to periods of unpaid leave, based on the survey.

A group affiliated to the Macau Federation of Trade Unions had conducted a survey in August last year, which indicated 59.6 percent of responding casino employees had “needed to take” unpaid leave since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic early last year.