Melco Resorts Offers to Compensate Employees Well to Take Time Off or Quit

Macau’s City of Dreams, owned by Melco Resorts, is offering its employees a substantial package for employees who would like to leave their jobs permanently or take some time off. The company is based in Hong Kong and is offering its workforce from Cyprus, Macau and the Philippines a choice between two programs that would compensate them generously. This is a result of the retrenchment difficulties that Melco Resorts faced last year. The Macau government urged its commercial casino venues and license holders to refrain from retrenching its workforce.

The Programmes

Melco Resorts is looking to reduce its large workforce by offering a generous voluntary exit scheme, dubbed “The New Chapter.” This option has been made available for employees who are looking to pursue new job opportunities and would like a new chapter in their careers. The voluntary exit program offers employees a total of 12 months of basic pay if they’re willing to resign. Certain workers have also been promised guaranteed tips in conjunction with the full year’s pay.

The second programme, called “Thinking of You”, will allow employees to take voluntary time off and still receive a portion of their salary. Melco Resorts has offered employees who are taking 6-12 months off a salary equivalent to 40% of their base pay each month. Those who opt to stay away for 13-18 months will see 55% of the base salary. A release from Melco Resorts shared that during this special period of voluntary leave, employees will not be required to work for the casino company and will be at liberty to find employment elsewhere while still enjoying specific company benefits. Once the leave period has lapsed, employees will be able to return to their previously held jobs.

Retrenchment Difficulties

Melco Resort’s portfolio currently includes Studio City and City of Dreams in Macau, the Philippines’ Manila City of Dreams and the up-and-coming City of Dreams Mediterranean in the Cyprus region. In addition to this, the casino firm operates a non-gaming venue, Altira Macau, and a total of eight Mocha Club electronic gambling venues in Cotai and Macau. During the worst of the pandemic last year, Macau, which is a Chinese Special Administrative Region, implored its six casino license holders to keep their workforce and refrain from retrenching them. This did not come as a surprise since gambling is considered to be the centre of Macau’s economy, with the gambling industry remaining the region’s largest employer for several years.

Melco is not the only casino operator that has refrained from retrenching people and has opted to employ a voluntary programme to reduce overhead costs for the upcoming months. Last month, another casino operator in Macau, Galaxy Entertainment, unveiled a voluntary exit scheme for specific workers and is offering pit supervisors who opt to resign a once-off payment of MOP380,000. This is equal to about US$47, 524.

Next June, all six of the gaming operators in Macau’s concessions are scheduled to expire. It is likely that they will receive fresh tenders, but the companies are doing their best to ensure that their odds of retaining their current gaming privileges in the most lucrative casino market in the world.

Lawrence Ho Stock Compensation

Despite the net of almost $232 million in Q1 of 2021 that was reported by the gaming firm, this past April brought good news for the company’s CEO and Founder, Lawrence Ho. According to a statement released by Melco Resorts, Lawrence Ho received around $10 million in stock compensation. The founder and CEO of Melco Resorts has an estimated net worth of around $2,2 billion. He received a total of 484,956 shares, valued at around $20,6, resulting in a reward of more than $10 million. The gambling firm’s board shared that the distribution is to incentivize and motivate Ho to continue striving towards the future development of the Melco Resorts Group.

The programmes put into place in Macau are starkly different to the retrenchments that took place in Cambodia earlier this month. The Cambodia employees who were let go are currently still liaising with their Union to ensure that they are paid the retrenchment incentives they deserve. At this time, no further progress has been reported.