The Social Security Fund (FSS) reminds employers that they must pay contributions for their casual workers on time.  Late payers are required to pay late payment interest and can also be liable to a financial penalty.

In Macao, if employers have employed casual workers (i.e. hire local employees to work for them under term labour contract), they must pay contributions for their employees in the month that follows the working month.  For instance, the employee works in February, so the payment of his/her contribution should be made in March.

The Executive Order sets out the contributions for the casual workers as follows:

For overdue payment of contributions for casual workers, the default contributions must be rectified within 60 days after the statutory payment period, with late payment interest of 3% per month on the amount of overdue contributions.  Where a fraction of a month shall be counted as a full month; and the minimum charge for late payment interest is 50 patacas.  However, if the default contribution is not rectified after 60 days, a minimum financial penalty of 500 patacas up to half of the amount of contributions payable will be charged on top of the late payment interest.

In addition, if the hired employees have never been enrolled in the Social Security System as beneficiaries, their employer must enrol for them at the same time; otherwise, the employer can be liable to a financial penalty of 200 to 1,000 patacas for each employee affected by the employer’s infractions. 

For more information about the payment of contributions for casual workers, members of the public can call 28532850 or visit the FSS website at www.fss.gov.mo/en/social/social-guide?id=16#FSS0007D.