Sands China President Wilfred Wong Ying-wai said yesterday that the US gaming operators has been reducing its number of employees by not renewing the employment contracts of some of them when they expired, insisting that the company has not laid anyone off because of the economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Wong made the comments while speaking to reporters after hosting a press conference at the Venetian in Cotai about a shopping carnival that the company is organising on August 7-9 with about 500 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and retailers at its shopping malls joining. Businesses can still apply to be part of the event until July 10, and registration is free.
According to Wong, while the company is broadening its sources of income and reducing expenditure, it has not laid off any of its local staff.
“Imported workers are to fill out the shortage of [local] human resources, so during these times when tourist numbers are down, the demand for imported workers has gone down too. So we haven’t renewed some of the imported workers’ contracts when they expired,” Wong said, without elaborating on which kinds of jobs are less in-demand at the company right now.
Asked how many of company’s employees have left the company, Wong said, “We have about 29,000 staff, so just a few hundred, it’s not a big figure.”
He added that some staff members have been cooperative and have been taking unpaid leave as the company is offering them an extra day off for taking one day of unpaid leave.“We try to keep local residents’ employment stable, so we have not laid off anyone. There are people whose contracts expire, and that’s not laying off,” Wong said.
When asked how much the company had been able to save thanks to its cost-cutting measures in place, Wong declined to answer.
As for the opening of the new Four Seasons suites and Londoner, Wong said that as the Four Seasons project targets high-end customers, the company would not open it until tourists can enter Macau again, while the Londoner project was on track for its planned phase-by-phase opening this year and next, with the 600-suite Londoner hotel, where the Holiday Inn previously was, and casino due to be ready in September.
Sands China President Wilfred Wong Ying-wai speaks to reporters after hosting a press conference about the company’s upcoming shopping carnival, at the Venetian Cotai yesterday. Photo: Monica Leong
