Labor and birthrate issues dominate Q&A session with Sam Hou Fai

Labor-related matters, as well as the low birthrate in Macau and its consequences, were highlighted during the Q&A session with lawmakers and the Chief Executive (CE), Sam Hou Fai. The CE attended the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly to answer lawmakers’ questions on the Policy Address for fiscal year 2026. On matters related to labor, lawmakers Ma Chi Seng and Leong Sun Iok, first, and José Pereira Coutinho, later, questioned the CE on the announced reforms in public administration and their potential impacts on the work and employment of civil servants. The government had earlier announced the merging of several departments and bureaus, as well as the mobility of civil servants across different services. Admin reform does not involve layoffs Questioned on the topic, Sam stated, “Public administration reform will not involve layoffs, salary reductions, or demotions,” and urged civil servants to rest assured that this is not among the government’s goals in implementing the reform. “This [reform] will be done over three years, and the program has already been presented. The goal is clear. Through a strong mechanism, [we aim] to increase efficiency and optimize services, reinforcing quality,” the CE said, adding, “To improve efficiency and optimize services, we need everyone’s efforts.” On the topic, the CE reaffirmed that civil servants are “valuable resources” for the government’s administrative machine. Leong stated that he had received complaints from civil servants about increased workload and staff shortages, which were affecting their physical and mental health, to which Sam replied with calls for resilience and an increased “sense of responsibility.” In response to Pereira Coutinho’s call for a salary update, the CE reaffirmed that such matters are handled by a mechanism that is enforced and evaluates livelihood conditions, namely the inflation rate, to propose salary updates. He reaffirmed that if this did not happen this year, it was because “the conditions were not met.” Still on labor matters, lawmaker Ella Lei addressed the difficulties of workers in a challenging job market and salaries that have not been growing at the same rate as expenses. She also called for a clear plan for the announced regime improvements in the importation of non-resident workers (TNRs). In response, the CE said that the government has done a lot to help residents and address their employment difficulties, blaming some who are “unwilling to make an effort” for the current unemployment rate. “We already did a lot to promote and solve the unemployment issue. Unemployed people need the will to work; if they do not, the government cannot help them. This is a problem not restricted to Macau, but we also have it. We need to support those who want to work and have the will to do so,” he said. Companies must prioritize hiring of young locals As for the TNRs, Sam remarked that the import of labor had always been and will continue to be intended to address the lack of local resources. Claiming that the government and public entities are doing their best and sharing the best practices on the matter, the CE stated that the government needs to be pragmatic and understand that there are cases of exception in which companies cannot resort to local manpower for specific jobs due to a lack of experienced and qualified people. “We need to take this rule [primacy of locals over imported labor] as a mission and not just look at the potential benefits in terms of lower salaries [or hiring TNRs],” the CE said, warning local employers that the policy is very clear and even applies to specific industries or sectors that have been named. “If we have fresh graduates who can do the job, the TNRs should be replaced. Even if they [the locals] need training, they should be preferred and trained to do the job rather than resort to imported labor.” The CE said that at the moment, 89.7% of the high managerial posts in the six major leisure and entertainment companies are already occupied by locals, hinting that similar rules could be extended to other sectors or specific industries. Leong Pou U also insisted on learning more about the planned revision of the Labor Law next year. The newly elected lawmaker wanted to know if, among the amendments, there would be the extension of maternity leave days as well as an increase in the number of days for annual leave and public holidays. Without unveiling many of the amendments, Sam said that all those aspects need to be considered and weighed, claiming that what is essential is to have a permanent mechanism to address several of these matters. Addressing the topic of the increase in the minimum wage, Sam refuted the idea of extending it to other professional categories, claiming that “most of them already have salaries that exceed the minimum wage level.” Birthrate decline causes concern Lawmakers Loi I Weng and Wong Kit Cheng have brought to the Q&A session topics related to the decline of the birthrate and some of its immediate consequences. Loi noted that the decline in the number of babies over the past few years is already affecting schools and other educational institutions, as they lose the opportunity to receive government subsidies due to fewer students per class. The lawmaker was calling for solutions to the issue, proposing an adjustment to the rules for the subsidy, which is only awarded to classes with 25 to 35 students. In response, the CE refuted the idea of adjusting the rules and insisted that what needs to change is the current trend of declining birth rates. For Sam, the key is to incentivize youngsters to have more kids, noting that the school subsidy formula is similar to that used in other regions, particularly the mainland. “We need to advance studies to analyze this problem and see what is happening in other countries that suffer from the same issue, like Japan,” the CE said, admitting that the number of K1 students has decreased by 38%. Teacher reconversion is a solution proposed “This is a reality, and what we need to [do in the short term is to] improve the distribution of resources,” he said, proposing that schools diversify their offers and teachers requalify their skills and reconvert into other areas such as continuous education. “We will refine the subsidy and also help schools that possess conditions to do so, for reconversion and advance with continuous education courses. We need to do this because of the legal rules; for now, these state that it’s for 25-35 students. Maybe we can create a platform to improve communication between schools and consider teacher transfers between different school levels,” he remarked. Citing government statistics, Sam said that research has been conducted and that the government knows about 200 teachers may soon be without a class. “Maybe we can transfer them to other duties like continuous education courses. I think they have a strong capacity for adaptability. We can also train them in other fields, such as technology. We will organize programs for the medium- and long-term for this. Teachers and schools need to adjust to the new reality. The government, together with schools and teachers, will do this,” he concluded.