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Cathay Pacific cabin crew may follow pilots in taking industrial action over pay
Union says newer staff are being asked to sign contracts that pay them less than colleagues - and may follow pilots in taking further action
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 28 April, 2015, 4:51pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 29 April, 2015, 1:08am
Hundreds of Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union members attend a media briefing about junior crew facing pay cuts upon contract renewal. Photo: Nora Tam
Cathay Pacific's biggest cabin crew union is threatening to follow the airline's pilots in taking industrial action over pay and working conditions.
The Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union is demanding talks with management over what it says are unfair changes to staff contracts - and is warning of a summer showdown unless bosses relent.
At issue are permanent contracts for crew who have completed their initial three-year contracts. The airline is asking those who started after March 31, 2012, to sign contracts with basic pay about 10 per cent lower than those who signed up beforehand. Newer staff will earn HK$159.30 per hour's flight, while longer-serving staff doing the same duties get HK$176.80. For ground duties, they will get HK$79.65 per hour, down from HK$88.40.
The 6,000-strong union says the new recruits are "being treated unfairly" - but wants the matter settled through talks.
"We do not wish to cause too much inconvenience to the travelling public, so our target time for industrial action will be the summer," union chairwoman Dora Lai Yuk-sim said.
"We believe this period will give Cathay Pacific enough time to respond to go back to the table to resolve the issue.
"If they still give excuses … then we are very sorry; we wish the public to understand we have to do something because we cannot allow the company to … treat employees like that."
The union says at least 1,100 crew members have refused to sign the contract so far.
Dora Lai Yuk-sim, chairman of the Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants' Union (FAU), speaks at the media briefing. Photo: Nora Tam
One cabin crew member affected, who requested anonymity for fear of disciplinary action, said: "Cathay is the worst of the worst. That's why I've got to speak out, but I'm scared of being punished."
Another crew member said: "I'm under pressure to sign because I was told [by a supervisor], 'If you don't sign this contract, I'll consider it as a resignation'."
In a statement, Cathay Pacific said cabin crew with "satisfactory" performance after their first three years would be invited to sign a permanent contract at the "market pay rate" - meaning they would receive a double-digit percentage increase. Cathay did not specify what those pay rates would be.
"Cathay closely monitors and adjusts as necessary the salaries of all staff ... in line with the Hong Kong market," an airline spokeswoman said.
The union said Cathay was referring to the previous pay scales for crew.
The spat is the latest in a growing number of increasingly serious disputes between the airline and its staff.
Pilots are still in dispute with the airline and are five months into a work-to-rule protest in which they refuse to fly on rostered days off or do overtime. It is the first such action by pilots since 2001, when a bitter conflict saw 51 of them fired, 49 of them on one day.
Cabin crew agreed to call off a threatened work-to-rule action in December after agreeing to a 4.5 per cent increase for most staff. Their union has not taken part in a strike since a 1993 dispute, which lasted 17 days.
Cathay Pacific's cabin crew continue their rally and sit-in protest against the allowance cut at the Cathay Pacific City, the headquarters of Cathay Pacific in Chek Lap Kok. Photo: K.Y. ChengCathay Pacific flight attendants are a step closer to a strike, their first in 22 years, as a promise of talks with airline bosses over pay and benefits failed to materialise.
Despite chief executive Ivan Chu Kwok-leung insisting his team was “ready” to talk, neither side managed to get around the negotiating table. The deadline passed at 10am this morning without arrangements for talks put in place, with the union saying the estimated strike date was between August 18-31.
Union chairwoman Dora Lai Yuk-sim said the Cathay CEO was the only person appropriate to engage with her negotiating team. An open letter to Chu was presented to a Cathay representative.
Outside, an estimated 350 flight attendants chanted that they were angry and called on management to respect the union.
Following a round-the-clock sit-in at Hong Kong International Airport for the last three days, members of the Flight Attendants Union (FAU) converged on Cathay’s headquarters this morning at Chek Lap Kok, turning up pressure ahead of the ultimatum.
“Our focus will be a clear-cut strike around the end of August,” Lai said, ruling out work-to-rule industrial action “because we do not wish to make ongoing [sporadic] disruption to passengers’ trips.”
A series of emails last night between Cathay and Lai failed to set an arrangement for talks.
“We’ll pre-announce the timeline so passengers can be well prepared for that as well,” she said.
Cathay flight's cabin crew converge on the company's headquarters on Thursday. They last went on strike in 1993. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
The airline was hopeful however that it can reach an agreement with the union to avert strike action.
"We have full confidence in our colleagues that in every decision that they make their priority will be the convenience of our passengers," said the general manager of cabin crew Maggie Yeung.
"At the same time we will continue our communication with the union and wil hopefully resolve the issue very soon."
In one gesture, Cathay will reinstate legal protection for its cabin crew members.
"We will reinstate [the legal protection] in the recent notice we issued to cabin crew meaning it will be much more specific," Yeung said.
An estimated 3,000 flight attendants last went on strike in 1993 for 17 days over the peak Lunar New Year holiday, during the union’s confrontation with airline bosses over staffing and pay.
If industrial action went ahead in August, Cathay’s busiest time of the year, some 3 million passengers and more than 6,600 flights could be affected.
In a strike situation, a large numbers of crews will not cross picket lines and flight disruption is to be expected. In such an event, regional flights with a high frequency of daily services are usually consolidated to protect long-haul operations.
Unlike its shortage of pilots, Cathay has flight attendants in abundance, and is expected to carefully schedule every crew roster to prevent the cancellation of flights. However, in a work-to-rule situation cabin crew could work scheduled flights only and not fill-in for colleagues during standby duty. Or flight attendants may opt to work within their paid flying hours or on-duty period.
Crews can opt to trigger cancellations through tactical sickness, as last-minute replacement crews cannot be found. However, No.8 signal typhoons or higher could have the biggest impact as delays push crews close to exceeding allocated flying hours.
Strike action is likely to divide cabin crew as some will consider the financial consequences of taking part.
