Chief Executive Chui Sai On said Tuesday that the government would study the feasibility of setting a ratio for local employees working in managerial positions in the city’s casinos.
Chui also that the government would make a deal with Macau’s six gaming operators to make sure that local casino employees be given more professional training courses to ensure that they have more opportunities to be promoted to managerial positions.
He made the pledge during a press conference at Government House to answer reporters’ questions about his 2014 Policy Address which he delivered in the Legislative Assembly (AL) hemicycle earlier in the afternoon.
Asked by a reporter as to whether the government would set up a ratio for local employees in managerial positions throughout the gaming industry, Chui said that the government was moving in that direction.
“Currently Secretary [for Economy and Finance] Tam [Pak Yuen] is negotiating with Macau’s six gaming operator on how to make sure that their local employees have more opportunities for promotion.
“In other words, it means that through more professional training, local employees should have more opportunities to be promoted to managerial positions,” Chui was quoted by The Macau Post Daily as saying.
He added, “Now [I] cannot say how many [managerial] positions [will be reserved for local gaming employees].
“I believe that a deal will be reached after discussions [between the government and the six gaming operators]. “Basically the government has the same idea as you [reporter].”
Delivering his 2014 Policy Address during a one-hour plenary meeting in the legislature, Chui said that the government would push the city’s big enterprises, particularly those in the gaming industry, to raise the percentage of local employees in managerial positions.
Gaming staff associations have repeatedly called for legal protection of the city’s croupiers and pit supervisors, demanding that non-locals be banned by law from working as croupiers and pit supervisors.
They also urged the government to come up with measures to ensure that local gaming employees are given more opportunities for promotion to managerial level.
Meanwhile, during the plenary session Chui announced the continuation of his government’s policy of granting the city’s inflation-hit residents a wide range of subsidies, allowances, old-age pensions and tax cuts, breaks and rebates, as well as another cash handout for all permanent and non-permanent residents.
Chui pledged to enhance the city’s “human resource quality” through a string of measures to promote upward mobility of local employees.
Chui said that while all the subsidies, allowances and cash handouts would cost the government 11.3 billion patacas next year, the tax cuts, breaks and rebates would result in a fiscal loss of 1.98 billion patacas.
Next year’s budget presented yesterday amounts to 153.6 billion patacas, up 13.9 percent from this year’s.
Chui announced the proposed measures in his 2014 Policy Address titled “Enhancing Underlying Strength, Promoting Sustainable Development”.
According to the government’s policy blueprint for next year, all permanent residents will receive a so-called “wealth-sharing” cash handout of 9,000 patacas, up 12.5 percent from the 8,000 patacas this year.
Non-permanent residents will receive 5,400 patacas, up from 4,800 patacas.(macaunews)
