At the very moment this story is being published, late on Wednesday evening (22 June), there are more than 200 site construction workers from an industrial site close to Cotai who are protesting near the China Liaison Office in Macau.
The workers from mainland China left Cotai at around 6pm, walked across Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge (also known as the “old” or “middle” bridge) to Macau peninsula and arrived in the vicinity of the China Liaison Office around 10pm.
The workers are demanding compensation for post-dismissal isolation costs which have arisen because of the recent pandemic restrictions in Macau.
The workers said the person in charge of the site they were employed at fired more than 200 workers today as a result of Macau’s pandemic restrictions, but since anyone entering Zhuhai from Macau must (as of today) be quarantined in Zhuhai for seven days, the person in charge of the site was asked to pay this quarantine fee for the workers.
One worker told IAG, “The seven-day quarantine fee is about RMB 7,000, which is higher than one month’s salary. After the site manager dismissed us, he promised to pay this fee, but we have no idea when or how we would receive it.”
At this very moment hundreds of workers are gathering in a park opposite the Liaison Office. Nearly 100 police officers are at the scene to maintain order.
