Guide for Macau People Who Wants to Work ... in Hong Kong?

HK Government website suggests its residents to circumvent defunct Macau labour law

Getting married? Take a look! Going for vacation? Take a look! Wanna job in Macau … take a look again!

Macau people believe their government, and there’s no reason why Hong Kong residents shouldn’t believe theirs. With truly unbelievable results.

The Interactive Employment Service of the Labour Department of Hong Kong has published the “Guide for Hong Kong People who Plan to Work in Macao” which does a better service to Hong Kong residents, than a myriad of all Macau employment agencies combined. How is that possible? By simply not doing anything.

If you take a closer look at Macau’s existing labour legislation, you’ll quickly find out that you don’t really need to do anything. Forget the blue card or an antiquated labour contract. A tiny three-line clause in the Article 4 of the infamous Ordinance n.º 17/2004, designed to prohibit illegal employment, opens wealth of opportunities to anyone willing to explore it.

“Macao SAR stipulates that, non-Macao residents are allowed to take up occasional and specific type of work which are instructive, technical, quality controlling, business auditing in nature, or relating to religion, sports, academic, culture and art, for not more than 45 days during their half-year stay in Macao.”

Needless to say, you can hardly find a Hong Kong resident these days who won’t be apt to do “instructive, technical or quality controlling” jobs. They’ve been doing it for years anyway. And who on Earth would control their days of stay or days of work in Macau? We only have a thirty-strong army of labour inspectors.

Just make your work “specific” enough and keep it “occasional”, which you can do very successfully by heading home on weekends, and you can go on for years. Don’t forget to bring along a nice plastic badge with a neck strap and fix yourself a scary English title that’s not easily translatable into either of Macau official languages. Done.

It’s not just Hong Kong residents who would benefit from this comprehensive and user-friendly guide. Local residents who don’t read either of Macau’s official languages must also be grateful for finally being able to have the “all you need to know” information about Macau employment, in one place and in plain English. At least Hong Kong government doesn’t need to hide away behind the curtain of official languages trying to cover up for incompetence under the spotlight of international exposure.

Last word of caution: even if you are technically a foreigner, don’t forget to bring your Hong Kong ID card … to enjoy the benefit of doubt.

If this still sounds unbelievable to anyone, just try once in a lifetime to leave the comfort of your car, get on your feet and take a slow walk around Macau. With your eyes open.