The Macau Federation of Trade Unions (commonly known as Gung Luen) started yesterday a signature-collecting campaign outside the Barrier Gate checkpoint, with the aim of pushing the government to draft a bill that would ban non-local residents from being hired as croupiers and pit supervisors by the city’s casinos.
Choi Kam Fu, a member of the federation’s board of directors, told reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s signature campaign that if such a law could become reality, 30,000 local residents working as croupiers and pit supervisors would feel that they have more job security.
Choi, who is also vice secretary-general of the Macau Gaming Enterprises Staff Association, which is a affiliated with the federation, also said that although Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On has repeatedly promised over the last two weeks that imported labour will not be allowed to work as croupiers and that this will not change under his watch, local croupiers were still worried about their jobs.
Chui’s current five-year term ends in December next year. However, he is widely expected to be re-elected for a second and constitutionally final five-year term next year.
“Thus we want to obtain more support from the public through this campaign and then we’ll submit a petition containing the signatures to the government. I hope the government will draft a bill banning non-locals from being employed as croupiers and pit supervisors as soon as possible,” Choi was quoted by The Macau Post Daily as saying, adding that the federation’s members would continue to collect signatures in different areas such as near casinos this week.
Choi declined to say how many signatures the federation expected to collect but stressed that its members would collect as many as they could during the week. (macaunews)
