Hundreds of unemployed residents – most of them construction workers – urging the government for help to find a job first gathered outside the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) in Areia Preta district on Friday but later occupied the road in front of the DSAL headquarters to show their dissatisfaction with the government’s perceived failure to solve their unemployment predicament.
During the protest, some of the workers scuffled with police, and several of them were subdued by police officers and taken in for questioning, as they disobeyed police orders.
In response to the workers occupying the road, more police officers were deployed to the scene, before finally the workers returned to the pavement and left the scene, after which the vehicular traffic returned to normal.
Speaking to reporters after the incident, DSAL Director Wong Chi Hong urged residents to express their demands in a rational way so as not to adversely affect other residents. Wong reaffirmed that the government is always safeguarding local residents’ employment situations. Wong said that most of the workers who attended Friday’s protest went to his bureau earlier this month to register their unemployment status, pledging that the government will continue to arrange job interviews with potential employers for them.
Friday’s road occupation protest by the unemployed workers came after hundreds of construction workers went to the Labour Affairs Bureau early this month to register their unemployment status. The jobless workers who went to the bureau early this month told reporters at that time that while the government has launched many public construction projects since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, local construction workers’ employment situation has not improved. The workers urged the government to ensure that construction companies which carry out public construction projects will give priority to employing local workers rather than non-local workers.
Coutinho meets with DSAL officials
Several representatives of the unemployed construction workers, accompanied by directly-elected lawmaker-cum-unionist José Maria Pereira Coutinho, went to the Labour Affairs Bureau headquarters at around 10 a.m. on Friday for a meeting with DSAL officials, urging the bureau to always help unemployed workers find a job. During the meeting inside, several hundred jobless workers – most of them construction workers – went to the DSAL headquarters to demand that the government solve their unemployment predicament.
Observers estimated that “hundreds” of workers took part in the protest. They also said that “most” of the workers had previously been employed in the construction sector.
During the one-hour closed-door meeting, some of the workers who waited outside the building got emotional and entered the DSAL premises to wait for the meeting to finish. However, DSAL officials persuaded them to wait outside. As hundreds of workers were gathering outside the bureau, police officers were deployed to the scene to maintain order.
After Coutinho talked to reporters following the meeting, more workers became agitated, broke through the police cordon, walked from the pavement onto the road outside the bureau – Avenida do Dr. Francisco Vieira Machado, and occupied the road. Police officers asked the workers to return to the pavement but in vain, because of which the police was forced to close the road to traffic to avoid accidents. According to observers, the workers occupied the road for about an hour.
In response, more police officers were deployed to the scene, before persuading the workers to return to the pavement. The police cordoned off the area again and formed a human chain to prevent the workers occupying the road again. Traffic resumed at about noon. All the workers left the scene at around 1 p.m.
Speaking to reporters at the bureau, Wong urged residents to express their demands rationally in a way that ensures their own safety, so as not to affect traffic and others using the services at the bureau’s headquarters.
‘Safeguarding locals’ employment’
Wong insisted that the government always safeguards local residents’ employment. “Construction companies must always employ local workers if their skills meet the required level,” he said.
Wong also said that many of the ongoing public construction projects are still in their foundation-laying phase, which does not require so many construction workers.
Also speaking to reporters, DSAL Deputy Director Chan Un Tong pledged that the bureau will certainly investigate cases in which employers choose to employ non-local construction workers for positions which local workers are capable of taking up.
Also speaking to reporters, Coutinho pointed out that the government will invest 18.5 billion patacas in public construction projects. He urged the bureau to reveal the number of local workers and non-local workers the respective construction sites’ contractors have employed.
A DSAL statement on Friday said that among the 465 local construction workers who registered for unemployment, 310 have already been arranged for job matchings, adding that 260 workers have already attended a job interview, about 100 of whom have meanwhile been hired.
The statement also pointed out that Macau’s number of non-resident workers stood at 175,778 at the end of January, down by 17,720 from the same period of last year.
A policewoman detains a female protester for disobeying police orders outside the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) in Areia Preta on Friday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
Hundreds of unemployed workers occupy Avenida do Dr. Francisco Vieira Machado outside the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) headquarters on Friday morning. Courtesy: TDM
