Cathay Pacific layoffs | The deadline for signing the contract will expire. The Air Service Staff Association does not rule out joint action with the pilot union

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Written by: Yuan Shu

2020-10-28 18:46

Last update date: 2020-10-28 18:47

Cathay Pacific announced the restructuring plan earlier, including the layoff of 5,300 employees in Hong Kong. The "surviving" employees also need to sign a new contract to reduce wages, requiring employees to sign within 7 days to receive allowances. Today (28th) is the last day of the deadline. If you don’t sign a new one, you won’t get the allowance.

The Cathay Pacific Air Services Staff Association met with the Labour Department this afternoon to urge the delay of the deadline and hope to call a tripartite meeting through the Labour Department.

Members of the Democratic Legislative Council and representatives of the Cathay Pacific Air Service Staff Union held a press conference in the evening to respond to the incident.

The Cathay Pacific Air Services Staff Association pointed out that after consulting legal opinions, employees who refused to sign the new contract were not dismissed, but should be regarded as layoffs by the company, and the employer must pay severance pay.

The union stated that if the government does not respond, there will be further actions, including joint actions with the pilot union.

Wang Simin, chairman of the Cathay Pacific Air Service Staff Association, said that he met with the Labour Department in the morning and hoped to reflect the problems encountered by Cathay Pacific staff in a more complete way.

The Labour Department also stated that it has received many requests from employees for help recently and will arrange tripartite talks as soon as possible.

Wang Simin said that he currently does not know the number of employees who have signed new contracts, but Cathay Pacific has previously announced that there are already enough employees to sign contracts to support Cathay Pacific's operations next year.

She pointed out that the news caused many employees to panic.

Earlier, the labor union had consulted legal opinions. Some lawyers pointed out that if an employee refuses to sign a new contract, it should be treated as a layoff by the employer and the employee should be given severance pay.

The union has stated that it will consider any industrial actions and strive for appeals, including joint actions with the pilot union.

However, as the aviation industry is now in the water, the trade unions are not capable of negotiating with the company.

Sun Deyan, vice chairman of the internal affairs of the trade union, pointed out that Cathay Pacific still hopes that when the aviation industry recovers in Japan, it can recover first and keep its leading position. It does not believe that the trade union has no bargaining power.

The Democrats Legislative Council Member Hu Zhiwei pointed out that the democrats have sent letters to the Secretary for Labour and Welfare Luo Zhiguang and the Secretary for Transportation and Housing Chen Fan to urge the government to take action.

He pointed out that Cathay Pacific had accepted the government's capital injection and received the first round of employment guarantee subsidies. If such layoffs are done, it would set a bad precedent and "make the government a water fish, which is extremely unfair."

Legislative Councilor Tan Wenhao pointed out that the days from Cathay Pacific’s announcement of the layoff plan to the signing of the new contract were too short, which involved multiple public holidays. He pointed out that the government had injected more than 10 billion yuan in capital into a private company earlier to preserve the status of Hong Kong’s aviation hub. , But the government must not only protect status and not protect employees.

Tan also pointed out that so far, no accountable official has come forward to meet with the trade union.

He pointed out that if an employee does not sign a new contract, he will be dismissed. He believes that it is unreasonable. "The employee has done nothing wrong."

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Cathay Pacific layoffs