Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon has announced that the government will hand one-off subsidies to employers who hire unemployed local residents within the next three months, and the employer will be given 19,968 patacas for each additionally hired employee.
According to Cheong, employers who benefit from the measure must employ the newly hired residents for at least 12 months. In addition, the employers will not be allowed to tell the additionally hired workers to take unpaid leave during the first 12 months of their respective employments.
Cheong announced the measure during a press conference at Government Headquarters on Friday.
Cheong, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, said that the government has finished drafting an administrative regulation (by-law) on the measure, officially known as a provisional subsidy programme aiming to encourage employers to hire jobless local residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The administrative regulation announced on Friday will take effect on the day after its promulgation in the Official Gazette (BO).
Government-drafted by-laws, officially known as administrative regulations, do not require the legislature’s approval.
Observers have told The Macau Post Daily they expect the administrative regulation announced on Friday to be promulgated in the gazette today.
Cheong noted on Friday that due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy, a raft of businesses have been facing challenges, and residents have been experiencing difficulties in their employment situation.
With the aim of encouraging employers to create job positions so as to stabilise local residents’ employment, Cheong said, the local government has decided to roll out the provisional subsidy programme, which aims to boost employers’ willingness to hire unemployed local residents.
Hiring period from next month to August
According to the administrative regulation on the provisional subsidy programme, Cheong said that an employer who has newly hired unemployed local residents during a specified period will be eligible to apply for a subsidy from the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL). The specified period will be determined by a chief executive order.
Cheong said that according to the chief executive order to be promulgated in the Official Gazette, employers will have to hire unemployed residents between June 1 and August 31 in order for them to be eligible for the subsidy.
An employer will receive a one-off subsidy of 19,968 patacas for each unemployed resident that they have newly employed, Cheong said.
The subsidy programme will have no maximum limit on the number of additionally hired unemployed residents, with the aim of encouraging employers to hire more of them, Cheong said.
According to the administrative regulation, Cheong said, the additionally hired employees must have been unemployed for at least 60 days before the commencement of their new job provided by the employers benefiting from the subsidy.
Newly hired unemployed residents who are spouses of the respective employers will not be covered by the subsidy programme, Cheong said.
In addition, Cheong said, the subsidy programme will not cover newly hired unemployed residents who are in a domestic partnership with the prospective employer.
Moreover, the programme will not cover newly hired unemployed residents who are the respective employer’s relatives up to second degree and live with the employer.
According to the administrative regulation, employers who benefit from the subsidy will have to maintain the number of their existing local employees during the first six months after having newly hired unemployed residents. In addition, they must maintain the employment of their newly hired unemployed residents for at least 12 months.
Moreover, the employers will not be allowed to “negotiate” with the workers unpaid leave during the first 12 months of their respective employments, Cheong said.
According to Cheong, employers failing to comply with the various officially required obligations and employment commitments will have to repay the subsidy to the government, and the repayment amount will be calculated by the Labour Affairs Bureau based on the rules listed in the subsidy programme’s administrative regulation.
Cheong said that according to the chief executive order to be promulgated, the number of existing local workers that the respective employers must maintain refers to those who have been employed and registered with the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) as of May 31.
Why 19,968 patacas?
Also addressing Friday’s press conference, DSAL Director Wong Chi Hong said that the government has decided to set the amount of the subsidy at 19,968 patacas after referencing Macau’s statutory monthly minimum wage, which currently stands at 6,656 patacas.
Despite the fact that the subsidy will be issued to the employers once, i.e., it is a one-off subsidy, the government described it as a “six-month subsidy”.
Wong said that the subsidy of 19,968 patacas is equal to six monthly payments of 3,328 patacas, or half the city’s monthly minimum wage.
Wong also said that the government expects to spend around 300 million patacas on the provisional subsidy programme, as the government has rolled out the programme based on a possible scenario in which local residents’ unemployment rate is expected to eventually rise to up to five percent, or 15,000 unemployed local residents.
According to the latest official statistics, local residents’ unemployment rate stands at 4.5 percent.
Wong pledged that if needed, the government would possibly roll out another round of the subsidy, i.e., another period for employers to hire unemployed local residents so that the former can receive another one-off subsidy. In that case, according to Wong, the government would issue another chief executive order to get another round of the subsidy off the ground.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon (centre), Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) Director Wong Chi Hong (left) and DSAL Deputy Director Chan Chon U address Friday’s Executive Council press conference at Government Headquarters. Photo courtesy of TDM
