Society

Macao arrests six for selling imported labor quotas

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-12 15:44

MACAO: Macao's Judiciary Police has arrested five men and one woman who allegedly sold labor quotas through operating a number of shell companies, the Macao Post Daily reported on Friday.

The suspects, aged between 20 and 58, owned four shell companies and 12 other companies, and they purchased almost-closed factory operations through these companies so as to apply for imported labor quotas from the authorities, the daily quoted a police spokesman as saying.

The suspects had successfully applied for at least 70 imported labor permits from the authorities, which they allegedly sold to workers from the Chinese mainland for about 30,000 patacas (US$3,750) each.

The six suspects were arrested after Macao's Social Security Fund reported to the police last December that one of its beneficiaries did not work in the company registered with the fund.

Under local law, non-residents are not allowed to work in Macao unless they are granted the government-issued imported worker permits. In recent years, local government has tightened its policy concerning imported workers, as more and more local residents complained about losing jobs to the imported workers, who usually get lower pay.

The police spokesman also said that they were still trying to track down all of the imported workers who had successfully applied for work permits through the racket.