When casinos are penalised by the government for non-compliance with the law and their operations are therefore suspended, they must pay compensation to their laid-off staff, lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo said yesterday.
Chan addressed a press briefing after yesterday’s closed-door meeting of the legislature’s 2nd standing committee with no government officials in attendance about the ongoing revision of a government-drafted amendment bill on reshaping the local gaming industry. Chan chairs the committee.
Chan underlined that this is to comply with the Labour Relations Law, which states that in special circumstances, such as when a company is ordered to suspend its business due to non-compliance with the law, the company that has laid off its staff because of the ancillary penalty will be required to pay severance to them, which otherwise would not be the case if the dismissal of staff was justified and not due to a penalty imposed on the casino by the government.
Chan said that the latest version of the bill proposes that the current casino operators that are not granted a new gaming concession will be required to apply for a “temporary gaming concession registration” during the bidding period, in order for them to keep operating for a short period of time.
The previous version of the bill proposed that the chief executive can unilaterally order a compensatory revocation of a gaming concession at any time “in the public interest”, while the new version of the bill proposes that in such cases, the gaming concessionaires would be entitled to reasonable compensation for such a revocation, with the government taking into account factors such as the length of time remaining in the gaming concession agreement and the company’s investment status.
Chan also said that the committee members were concerned about the conditions of the uncompensated revocation of a gaming concession. Chan quoted government officials as saying previously that the uncompensated revocation includes reasons such as “endangerment of national security and the special administrative region’s security, “not fulfilling one’s obligations’’, Chan added that the penalty will depend on the “gravity of the offence”.
Chan said that the committee will ask the government to continue to adjust the bill’s final wording and submit its updated revision version with a view to signing the submission by June 10, so that a plenary session of the legislature could vote on the bill’s final version before or on June 26, when Macau’s three gaming concessions and three sub-concessions will expire.
However, all the concessions and sub-concessions have already been extended by the government until the end of the year.
According to the bill, there will be no more sub-concessions after the granting of up to six gaming concessions.
Lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo (right), who chairs the legislature’s 2nd Standing Committee, gestures after yesterday’s standing committee’s closed-door meeting reviewing the ongoing revision of the government-drafted gaming bill, as the committee’s secretary, Lam Lon Wai, looks on.
Photo: Ginnie Liang
