Press Statement
22 January 2007

Spokesperson: Lorenzo A. Santos, Jr                  
Telephone no:(853) 6641-0421   

Statement of Guardforce (Macau) Limited Foreign Workers on Their Company's Breach of Employment Contracts

We deplore Guardforce (Macau) Limited for breaching our work permits (employment contracts) by putting us on standby or floating status without pay. Ironically we are given this status after the company was allowed to hire additional foreign workers after we filed a complaint with the Labour Affairs Bureau on September 11, 2007.

Most of us have been working in the company for more than ten years. During those years Guardforce Macau Ltd. had been rocked with labor disputes for unfair labor practices in 1997, 2003 and 2005. While there were some concessions given to the workers during those times, the fundamental problems of the workers still remain up to now.

It should be noted that Notice no. 12/GM/88 which appeared on the 5th issue of the "Macau Government Gazette" on 1st February constitutes the process of hiring foreign workers. The mere fact that we have been given work permits (visas) up to May 2008 is based on the assumption that the process which is stipulated in the above dispatch and which the Labour Affairs Bureau (LAB) accepted and made an opinion on had been followed. In effect, we have contracts submitted by our company to the LAB which enabled us to get a work permit or visa.

Since our salary is part of the contract, (and which has been de facto approved by the LAB) this important provision of our contract will be violated by our company by putting us on standby or floating status without pay.

Clearly this violates certain provisions of Article 5 Law no. 4/98/M, July 27 which states that "all workers, regardless of age, sex, race, nationality, or territory of origin, shall have the right to:

a) the remuneration of work, in accordance with its quantity, nature and quality;

b) Equality of salary for equal work or work of equal value;

c) a maximum limit of daily working time, to a weekly rest, and to periodic paid holidays, as well as to receive remuneration on public holidays;

It also violates many of our complaints which we submitted to the Labour Affairs Bureau on September 11, 2007.

1. Unpaid Days Off

2. Not paying full payment for Statutory Holidays for January 1, 3 Days Lunar New Year and October 1st

3. Not paying full compensation for overtime pay exceeding 8 hours of work per day

4. The company's practice of forcing us to sign a declaration and/or waiver that negates our rights.

5. Not providing us the original copy of our employment contracts from the Economic Bureau by the Human Resources of the Labor Department.

6. Not providing us with adequate health and occupational benefits

We therefore appeal on the Labour Affairs Bureau to act on our plight and on our complaints as soon as possible.