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MANILA, Philippines?Starting April next year, migrant workers in Macau with pending work contracts who abandon their work without due cause will be banned from re-entering this Chinese territory for six months, it was learned Wednesday.
Quoting director Shuen Ka Hung of Macau?s Labor Affairs Bureau, the Macau Migrants Rights Network said the ban would not cover these so-called runaways who will return to Macau as tourists. He stressed however that these workers cannot work during the ban.
Shuen had a dialogue with the Network last week over new migrant labor laws that would take effect April 26, 2010, said Gi Estrada, program coordinator of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, a member of the Network.
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The Macau labor official also said non-resident workers are not allowed to enter into another contract while their existing work contracts are still in effect.
The new migrant labor law also specifies a levy for employers who will hire migrant workers. According to Shuen, this levy cannot be passed on to the migrant worker. To ensure this, he said, employers are required to transfer salaries directly to the foreign employees? bank account.
Another provision of the new law specifies that migrant workers can only transfer to another job category after the expiration of the employment contract. Before the transfer, migrant workers are required to return to their home country.
At the same time, employers or placement agencies caught confiscating the migrant workers? documents would be charged for the illegal act and fined a fee equivalent to 10-month salary.
Shuen thus urged migrant workers who have been so victimized to come out and complain to his office. Otherwise, he said, his office cannot be of help.
But Network members who participated in the dialogue oppose the new law, saying its provisions are ?discriminatory? against migrant workers.
Another dialogue with migrant workers is being set for January next year on the new law.
As of August 2009, there were 78,536 documented migrant workers in Macau, of whom 10,909 were from the Philippines, according to Estrada. The numbers do not include the undocumented workers.
