Foreign labour laws demand caution

Alexandra Lages

Small and medium enterprises in Macau have experienced pressure from human resource problems for a long time. When I arrived here three years ago, I often heard business people complain of a shortage of workers, both resident and non-resident.
In 13 days from now, on April 26, local businesses will enter a new stage, as the new imported labour law will take effect. Its legislative process was not easy, and was marred by much controversy. Currently, it looks like all parties have adopted a “wait and see” mentality.
However, time is running out and the Government must soon announce the by-laws which establish the most important and concrete provisions of the law including details of quotas, fines and legal punishment for offenders.
In yesterday’s MDTimes edition, Cecilia Ho, a lecturer of the social work program at the Macau Polytechnic Institute delivered some advice to the Government, saying the restrictions on imported labour must be reasonable. I agree with her.
However, I would recommend not only reasonableness, but also caution. Macau has recently faced hard times with the financial downturn and learned a good lesson from that.
After almost five years of fast economic growth, since new gaming operators set up in Macau turning it into the world’s largest gambling market, people have finally realized a city cannot be run by only one economic sector for too long. And the public started to hear calls for diversification of economy echoing from the Government and the Legislative Assembly.
To accomplish that mission, it is paramount to ensure that small and medium businesses have conditions to grow steadily and the new imported labour law will have an impact on this.
Since the Government has launched restrictions on the imported labour to protect the local residents, the small and medium businesses’ must strive harder. I know at least two cases of local residents who started their own business and ended up closing their doors.
Both shared the same labour-related problem. Firstly, they could not afford local worker’s wages, and secondly, the Government would not give them permission to hire non-resident workers.
In one of these cases, the owner hired resident workers twice and provided them with training, only to see them quickly demand salary increases and threaten to quit.
Certainly the Government must protect local’s jobs and there must be a control on imported labour, but caution is also required, otherwise local residents will start to take advantage of their special conditions in a bad way.
Locals should compete for a position or demand promotion by showing they are the right person for the job. They should not rely only on the law’s protection.
The Government should not only protect the local labourers, but also encourage them to improve their skills. After all, should the golden days of Macau’s economy return and result in an approved influx of imported labour, the locals may find themselves with some very stiff competition and should be prepared for it.