Blue Book attempts to tackle local labour problems

Yesterday, the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (FOAM), together with the China Institute of Industrial Relations, introduced a Blue Book pertaining to the protection of local labour rights and development.
Given that the date of completion for amendments to the Labour Law is still unknown, FOAM has proposed a collective agreement – a commercial agreement usually negotiated collectively between the management group of companies and trade unions.
In terms of developing the Mechanism of Labour Relations Co-ordination, the union proposes two directions – namely, the improvement of the mechanism of a collective labour law via rights such as collective agreement and the continual strengthening of monitoring adequate supply of labour.
With the existence of a collective agreement ‘both the market as well as labour rights will have their stability ensured’ reads the Blue Book.
Meanwhile, despite the recent reduction in the number of non-resident workers employed in the city the number over the past seven years is still growing – which remains one of the fundamental issues in the city, it opines.
FOAM hence propose increasing the transparency regarding supply of non-resident workers in order to improve the social participation mechanism of policies of non-resident workers’ employment as well as exit mechanism for foreign workers.
In addition, the input of more resources towards training local workers and the strengthening of protection of minimum working conditions are also approaches to resolving the issue posed by non-resident workers, according to the book.
Current Labour Standards, which is the core of the Labour Law, still require improvements, in particular in areas such as overlapping holidays, paternity leave and labour remuneration, it says.
The union perceives that working hours should be decreased, proposing the introduction of a five-day work week and restricting employers’ rights regarding adjusting the flexibility of working hours.
Also, FOAM suggests refining the regulations for holidays and breaks, increasing the number of days for paid leave, raising salaries by diversifying the economy and rolling out a universal minimum wage law.
With the non-mandatory central pension scheme bill recently passed at the Legislative Assembly, together with the Social Security Fund (SSF), local residents, to a certain extent, receive some level of guarantee for retirement. However, as stated in the Blue Book, the level of benefits to be received when retired is relatively inadequate when compared to other regions.
With this in mind, FOAM proposes raising the level of contribution of the pension scheme, conducting research on the feasibility of linking contributors’ income and the contribution amount, as well as ensuring that the SSF appropriately support the city’s economic development.
In terms of labour disputes, FOAM should strengthen communication with employers to assist in negotiations between workers and employers, says the Blue Book.
Meanwhile, the Labour Affairs Bureau should strengthen its monitoring of employer behaviour whilst the courts should consider enhancing and improving their processing efficiency when dealing with labour cases.
With the schedule of the revision of the Labour Law unknown, the union pointed out that the city will continue to face a shortage of regulations regarding solutions for resolving labour disputes.