On the 12th of January 2015 the Macau SAR’s Legislative Council approved a draft Law amending Law 7/2008.

Such draft law contains two essential modifications to Law 7/2008:

• (i) The increase of the compensation to be paid to dismissed employees (increasing the cap used to calculate the amount of compensation to be paid to the employee from MOP 14,000 to MOP 20,000).
• (ii) The revision of the basic monthly salary amount every two years, being the same updated according with the economical development of Macau SAR.

 

The draft law is now being analysed and discussed in the 2nd Permanent Commission.

http://www.al.gov.mo/proposta/7-2008tab/proposta.pdf    (Portuguese Version)
http://www.al.gov.mo/proposta/7-2008tab/proposta_cn.pdf    (Chinese Version)

Case Number: TUI 21/2014

Date of Judgment: 7 January, 2015

The Court of Final Appeal (TUI) ruled the annulment of the Administrative Act through which it had been rejected permanent resident status to an Irish investor by virtue of the fact that his spouse and daughter did not reside in Macau.

The Court ruled that, pursuant to Section 1, paragraph 1 (9), of Law 8/1999 permanent resident status may only be granted to the ones who reside in the territory, have his central domestic economy and professional life settled in Macau, pay taxes there and have the intention to reside definitely in Macau SAR.

The fact that family members reside or not in Macau does not constitute a decisive requisite but only a mere factor to be weighted in the concession of permanent resident status.

Moreover, the Court considered that the Administration may possibly have discretionary powers for determining the “intention to reside definitely” but that those powers may not be used for establishing the legal concept “permanent residence”.

www.court.gov.mo/sentence/pt-54ad11b2d78d7.pdf    (Portuguese Version)
www.court.gov.mo/sentence/zh-54ad11b2d78d7.pdf    (Chinese Version)

The Legislative Council´s permanent commissions are analysing and discussing 5 draft Laws to be presented to the plenary session.

The 1st permanent commission is analysing amendments to the Law provisions in respect of labour accidents and professional illnesses damages.

The 2nd permanent commission is analysing a new law regulating the public services employment agreements.

The 3rd permanent commission is presently analysing three Draft Laws regarding, respectively, litigation caused by medical errors, guarantees over credits emerging from labour contracts and minimum wager for cleaning and security real estate management’ employees.

The approval of such Draft Laws shall imply its submission to the legislative assembly plenary session.

On January 12 the Legislative Assembly Plenary Session will discuss and vote (i) a Draft Law eliminating bearer shares in Macau and proceeding with amendments to the Macau Commercial Code; (ii) amendments to Law 7/2008 (Labour Law) and (iii) modifications to Law 11/2000 (Macau SAR Legislative Council Organic Law).

On the 31-12-14 was gazzeted the Law 10/2014 that proceeds with the classification of active corruption acts within foreign trade, the creation of a regime for the prevention and suppression of such acts, as well as attributing competence to the Commission Against Corruption to investigate and inquiry acts of active corruption executed in the foreign trade.

The Law establishes that any person that gives or promises any undue advantage, either pecuniary or non-pecuniary, to any person considered as a Public Official of a Foreign Country or Territory or as an employee of an International Organization, as compensation of any act or omission in the performance of their duties, in order to gain or maintain a business or any other undue advantage in connection with Foreign Trade shall be punished with prison sentence up to 3 years or with a fine.

The Law also establishes the legal responsibility of Legal Persons for situations in which the company´s bodies and/or representatives, or any person acting under the authority of the company´s bodies and/or representatives, have committed the crime mentioned in the previous paragraph, except on the cases in which the person has acted against express orders or instructions of the company´s competent bodies.

The applicable penalty can be especially attenuated or dismissed if the agent of the crime assists on the collection of evidences that are considered to be decisive in the identification or apprehension of other persons responsible for the crime, or by any means gives information that is considered decisive for the discovery of the truth.

The Law entered into force on the 1st of January 2015.

http://images.io.gov.mo/bo/i/2014/52/lei-10-2014.pdf    (Bilingual Version)