A group of local construction workers on the Grand Lisboa Palace project – developed by local gaming operator SJM Holdings Ltd. in Cotai – went with legislator Ella Lei Cheng I to the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) yesterday to submit a letter complaining about unfair dismissal. The legislator, helping local workers with their complaint, said that a total of 100 local construction workers from the Grand Lisboa Palace project had been dismissed by the construction company without fair reason. Most of them had worked as cleaners on the construction site. The workers claimed that they started working at the site from September 12 onwards but had received a notice of suspended employment or dismissal from the construction company of Grand Lisboa Palace after working for only two to three days. Legislator Ella Lei revealed that about 3,700 non-resident workers are currently working on the construction site. Some non-resident workers perform the same type of job as the local construction workers hired, Lei said. Lei stressed that the unreasonable dismissal of the local workers is breach of the government’s principle of hiring local workers as a priority and urged the government to resolve this issue. Cutting costs The construction company only hired local resident workers as a temporary replacement in the absence of non-resident workers due to their expired working visa permit, Mr. Choi Tui Keng, a representative of the local construction workers, told Business Daily via phone yesterday. Another reason for hiring non-resident workers is to cut costs as non-resident workers usually receive lower pay than local workers for the same job, Mr. Choi added. “About 3,000 non-resident workers and more than 100 illegal workers are working at the construction site,” Mr. Choi claimed. He explained that the construction company had hired a total of 100 local workers but only hired them for a few days while waiting for the arrival of non-resident workers to come to Macau to work. “We couldn’t even reach out to the manager of the construction company for an explanation of why [he] only hired us for a few days and fired us afterwards,” Mr. Choi said. Delaying project Angela Leong On Kei, executive director of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings Ltd., when talking to reporters at a public event yesterday, said that the company is still dealing with the labour dispute. “The labour dispute will affect the new project to be completed in 2017. Not only due to the labour issue, but also other factors may possibly occur to cause delays to the project. We hope the project can be opened by 2017,” Leong added. Furthermore, DSAL responded that the government does not allow local employment opportunities to be compromised. DSAL issued a statement last night saying that after the Bureau had had a meeting with the related construction company and the construction workers to resolve the problem yesterday the construction company promised to immediately review the number of non-resident workers hired on the construction site and will arrange for them to leave accordingly. So far, DSAL has assisted 86 local construction workers to register for employment in the city.
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