A labor group in Macau is pressing for salary hike for casino employees, despite the casino industry’s ongoing lackluster performance.
Choi Kam Fu, director general of the Macau Gaming Enterprises Staff’s Association, told local media the group has teamed up with two other unions representing casino workers. Together, they will deliver letters “calling for salary increases and bonuses in 2016” to the six casino operators in the city state.
Public broadcaster TDM quoted Choi saying: “The expenditures on the welfare of the staff do not occupy a large portion of the overall operational costs. Some only make up around 10 percent. Based on the adjustment, the expenditures would not draw too much pressure.”
GGRAsia reported that Wynn Macau Ltd. has already announced that employees of Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace will get a one-month bonus ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday period, which starts on February 7. According to the report, which quoted local media outlets, 98 percent of Wynn’s 8,000 employees, excluding senior management, will get the bonus.
The U.S.-based casino operator, however, failed to mention if its employees will have a salary increase for 2016. Last year, Wynn Macau announced a 5 percent pay hike for majority of its staff.
Early this month, SJM Holdings Ltd. announced it will keep on giving out bonuses to staff this year, which included an annual bonus equivalent to two months’ salary for employees earning MOP20,000 (US$2,500) and below. Employees receiving wages higher than that level will receive an annual bonus equivalent to 1.5 months of their salaries or MOP40,000, whichever is higher.
SJM’s scheme, called “living subsidies,” will be paid in two installments. The first payout, or “new year subsidies,” were distributed last January 1, while the “summer subsidies” were scheduled to be given out on July 1.
Macau’s gross gaming revenue fell for the 18th straight month in November, the lowest GGR recorded since 2010. According to the city’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination department, the city state’s GGR declined 32.3 percent year-on-year to MOP 16.4 billion.
