Macau SAR COUNTRY Profile 
Prepared by the asia pacific mission for migrants (apmm)

July 2005

A. General Description of the Host Country

Way back in the 16^th century, Macau became Portugal’s mercantile colony. Since the 20th of December 1999 hand-over, an appointed chief executive governs the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) under a “One Country-Two System”. The 1987 Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the “Basic Law” of MSAR lay down that it shall operate autonomously for 50 years under the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Whereby it guarantees unchanged economic system and way of life, basic freedom and protected rights of its citizens. The Chief Executive Edmund Ho pledged in his 2004 policy address that the MSAR government remains people-oriented, ensures a diversified and balanced administration to promote the inter-action and development of various sectors and society, and civic responsibility. He pledged to continue supporting and boosting the business sector. He marked his priorities such as: to advance the liberalisation of the economy, regional cooperation and administrative reforms, take advantage of the so-called opportunities created by CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement), to further promote reforms in the public administration. Legal system, education and human development among others. MSAR is also being projected as a “City of Culture”.

Major revenue sources of MSAR are tourism and gaming (foremost), finance and insurance, manufacturing, construction and real state. Pataca (MOP) is its official currency. The Hong Kong dollar is also use in transactions and payments of goods. A HK$100 is equivalent to MOP103.20 while 1 US$ is to MOP8.

The former Portugal colony is situated on the south coast of mainland China to the west of the economic zone of the Pearl River Delta. It is a 45 minutes ferry travel from Hong Kong (HK) SAR. MSAR is consists of the central peninsula, Taipa and Coloane islands. Connecting these islands are the Nobre de Carvalho Bridge and the Friendship Bridge or the Ponte da Amizade and another 2.2 kilometre six-lane highway. The coastline land reclamation enlarged Macau’s land area to 27.3 kilometres from 10.28 square kilometre in the 19^th century.

Total population: 469,800 as of March 2005. Population density: 16,000 per sq, km. About 95% are ethnic Chinese, from the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. Portuguese, Europeans and other regions included the remaining 5%.

B. The Labour Force – Official data summary of labour force participation, unemployment rate and underemployment in the following periods:

PERIOD	LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE				UNEMPLOYMENT RATE	UNDER EMPLOYMENT RATE
	Male	Female	LABOUR FORCE	EMPLOYED
2005 (1^st Quarter)	52.5%	47.5%			(9,900) 4.1%	(2,700) 1.1%
2004	70.1%	54.8%	229,059	230,000	(11,046) 4.8%	1.9%
2003	69.6%	53.2%	215,526	218,013	(12,938) 6.0%	2.7%
2002	70.6%	55.1%	213,999	202,588	(13,430) 6.3%	3.4%
2001	74.7%	56.2%		200,569	6.4%	3.6%

(Table-1. Data source: Statistics and Census Service, Employment Survey 2004)

C. Labour Relations and Import of Labour

1) The Resident Workers - are the local workers as well as migrants who were given residency status in Macau.

► Main Provisions and entitlement for Workers – are stipulated in the Statutory Law in Macau concerning labour relations in all sectors is decree law 24/89/M, of April 3, published in the Government Gazette nº 14, April 3, 1989, complemented with decree law 40/95/M, August, 14, 1995, and decree law 43/95/M, August 21, 1995.

On Normal Working Hours 8 hours/day, 48 hours/week	30 minutes break in normal shift, so that workers do not have to work 5 consecutive hours
	Employer & Worker can mutually extend this limit NOT exceeding 10.5 working hours/day
	Over 48 working hours per week may be allowed in the event of overtime work
On Weekly and Annual Leave and Public Holidays	Paid Rest Day		Paid rest period of 24 consecutive hours, for every 7 days work
	Paid Annual Leave		Six (6) working days of paid annual leave for every calendar year
	Workers must have a 10 days Public Mandatory Holidays per year, after the probation period	Jan 1*		These 6-days mandatory holidays must be paid to Daily Wage Workers*	These 6-days mandatory holidays must not be deducted from the salary of Monthly Paid Workers*
		Chinese New Year (3 days)*
		Labour Day*
		China National Day*
		Ching Ming
		Mid-Autumn Festival
		Chong Yeong
		Macao SAR Foundation Day
On Female workers	Entitled to the same opportunities, allowances and treatment as men. There will be no discrimination based on sex, status or family situation. Pregnant women who have been employed for more than one year, are entitled to 35 days maternity leave, without losing their position and at full salary, 30 days of which are immediately after childbirth. The right to full salary, however, is limited to 3 births per employee, regardless of the employer.
On Underage Workers	No employer may hire workers under the age of 16. However, those between 14 and 16 of age may be authorised in exceptional circumstances to perform professional duties, if they can prove they are physically able to do so. Underage workers may be prevented from performing work considered harmful to their development.
On Work-related Accidents	In the case of an accident at work or in the event of an occupational disease resulting from any duties performed, employees are entitled to proper care, treatment and compensation provided by an insurance company operating in Macao with whom the employer is obliged to take out a policy for the employee and within 24 hours must submit to Labour and Employment Bureau.

(Table-2. Data source: http://www.macau.gov.mo/news. Note: English translation is for reference only. In case of vagueness, please refer to document in Chinese and Portuguese official versions.

► Out of the 159 international covenants and multilateral treaties applied in Macau, 30 of these are under the Labour and Employment Bureau (Source: Macau Information Bureau). Yet up till now, there is no legislated mandatory minimum wage for the workers. Similarly, there is no collective bargaining law to protect the local workers’ wages and fringe benefits. Workers wage is pegged by the practice of “free market system”. Employer’s compliance therefore of fair wage and worker’s benefits is not assured. Workers have no bargaining power to upgrade their wages and other labour matters.

► When interviewed, the Macau Civil Servants Association’s president Jose Ma. Pereira Coutinho cited that after the hand over, the Legislative Assembly approved more that 99% of laws proposed by the government without consideration of the workers’ rights. The association believes that the government has the moral obligation to ensure that laws are enacted on collective bargaining, trade union and a minimum wage based from international labour standards. Another legislator says that the MSAR government claimed that the minimum wage is in placed through a special committee.

► There has been sentiments that local workers’ bargaining negotiations with Employers for their wages, benefits and working condition shrunk due to the presence of migrant workers who are paid lesser.

2) The Non-Resident Workers - are migrants from Asia, Africa, America, Europe, and Oceania. Migrants from mainland China (Fujian, Gaungdong, Beijing, Shanghai, etcetera) has the highest number followed by the Philippines. Countries under “Others” are Myanmar (Burma), Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Singapore, Nepal and Japan.

We noted the entry of Indonesian migrants during the 3^rd to 4^th quarter of 2003 and many more came to find jobs in 2004. However, Indonesia is not included in the statistical data even under “Others”. We inquired from the documentation and information office if the migrants from Indonesia are listed under Hong Kong since most of them came from there. “Entries of non-resident workers are based from their travel documents (i.e. passport) issued by their country of origin not from the country port they came from. Their number may not be that significant yet”, was the answer given us.

A sizeable undocumented migrants form part the migrants’ community. There are also some asylum seekers from Pakistan and other Latin American county

► Population of Non-resident Workers by Nationality (Dispatches 12/GM/88 and 49/GM/88).

YEAR / MONTH	TOTAL	Country / Territory
		Africa	America	ASIA
				Total	Mainland China	Philippines	Hong Kong	Malaysia	Thailand	Others	Europe	Oceania
Feb 2005	28143	15	145	27,496	18,807	4,503	1,224	314	492	2,156	350	137
Jan 2005	27553	14	145	26,927	18,619