Macao’s open-air food stalls – known as dai pai dong in Cantonese – are at risk of shutting down due to staff shortages caused by the city’s restrictive hawker management regime, Macao Daily News reports.
Under the latest law introduced last March, any “collaborator” or individual helping out in a hawker business must be a spouse, direct relative, in-law or distant relation of the license holder. Those who fail to abide by this guideline are liable to a fine between 600 patacas to 1,500 patacas.
This rule has proven to be detrimental to local stalls, with one owner identified by the surname Ng telling Macao Daily News that she had been struggling to recruit family members who were able to help out with her business, which serves stir-fried dishes outside a temple.
According to the news outlet, Ng’s dai pai dong has a history of nearly six decades, with the businesswoman originally helping her father run the store when she was younger before taking over after he passed away.
Ng said that to keep her stall running, she requires at least four to five workers. Although the hawker had been able to enlist the help of relatives in the early days, she noted that this was no longer possible in recent years, resulting in her hiring non-family staff members.
With the authorities recently stepping up patrols, Ng said she suspended operation of her business from 5 January in order to avoid incurring penalties.
On the current business environment, Ng said that as a result of societal and economic changes in recent years, the children and relatives of dai pai dong owners were either unable or unwilling to help out with such businesses.
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She urged for the rules to be relaxed to allow vendors such as herself to hire local workers. Ng pointed out that this would help to maintain the local culture of a community, revitalise the older districts and help to boost local employment.
The head of the Macau Vendors Mutual Aid Association, O Cheng Wong, echoed similar sentiments, urging the authorities to exercise discretion when dealing with the issue of staff shortages among hawker stalls.
O noted that his organisation had received over 20 calls for assistance from hawkers dealing with a lack of manpower, adding that the association had already brought the issue to the attention of the Municipal Affairs Bureau.
Regarding the current situation, O said that the rule limiting hawker staff to family members had been in place for years.
He explained that some dai pai dong owners were suffering from staff shortage as their children and close relations had their own jobs, with no other relatives available to assist in the stall. The association head acknowledged that even in cases where the dai pai dong operator’s children are willing to take over the business, there is still a staff shortage, as there is only one person as the successor.
Although such stalls are not part of Macao and Hong Kong’s intangible heritage lists, they are considered to be an integral part of the local culinary landscape, earning appearances in movies and TV shows and recognition in the Oxford English Dictionary.
