Nearly all Cathay Pacific pilots, vast majority of cabin crew sign new salary-slashing contracts

Nearly all of Cathay Pacific’s pilots and more than 90% of its cabin crew have signed new, cheaper employment contracts, the airline has revealed. In all, 2,613 of its pilots and 7,346 cabin crew accepted the take-it-or-leave-it deals, representing 98.5% and 91.6% of the two groups, respectively. In its announcement, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier also said staff members who refused to sign the new contracts would be leaving the company but receive exit packages that went beyond statutory requirements. The airline added that severance payouts would not be offset against pension contributions. Based on the airline’s data, some 40 pilots and 674 cabin crew opted not to sign the new contracts. “We have jobs for every pilot who was offered COS18 [contract] and we wanted a 100 per cent take up,” Cathay’s director of flight operations Chris Kempis said in a Thursday internal memo tipping how many had signed new contracts. “However, we also realised that it was possible that some would choose to leave us rather than accept.” In making the official announcement shortly thereafter, director of service delivery Alex McGowan said: “I am very grateful that over 90% of cabin crew who were offered a role have chosen to remain part of our team.” Hong Kong’s flag carrier, which employs more than 3,000 pilots worldwide, previously said it would rehire redundant pilots to backfill positions. The latest memo from Kempis did not indicate if the airline would proceed with that commitment.<br/>