Cathay suspend duty swap for flight attendants

Cathay Pacific has suspended an arrangement allowing crew to swap flying duties starting this month, intensifying rumors that the airline will start sacking staff.

A union head said they will meet management to discuss the matter this afternoon.

Rumors that Cathay will axe more than 1,500 flight attendants soon, alongside over 700 pilots and another 400 staff at the headquarters, with half of them from the crew resources department as well as training staff, started spreading last week.

The company refused to comment on the matter.

As internal tension ran high, a circular was sent to staff members about changes to duty swap arrangements.

According to the internal circular, beginning in October, those with flying duties can swap their duties only with those who are assigned flying duties, and those on leave.

“As our schedule continues to be fluid, it’s crucial we ensure as many as possible of you remain proficient, from a safety and service perspective,” Cathay told its flight attendants.

“From October 1 until further notice, swap requests between crew with flying duties and without flying duties assigned in the month will be temporarily suspended.

Other swap guidelines will continue to apply,” the circular wrote. One Cathay staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this was an unprecedented move.

“I have never seen this arrangement during the years I have worked for the company. It is a really rare, or even unprecedented move by the company,” he said.

“We were allowed to swap duties between ourselves, as some of us wanted to work more to earn more money, while some wanted more holidays, but not anymore,” he added.

However, Zuki Wong Sze-man, chairwoman of the Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union, played down those rumors, saying her union will be meeting management this afternoon.

“Cathay suspending the swap of flight duties is to ensure flight attendants can extend their licenses, as flight attendants might have to be trained again after a certain amount of time without flight duties,” Wong said, adding that those assigned flight duties can still swap among themselves.

“Rumors about redundancies have been circulating from time to time, and we need not be too concerned. The union will be meeting management tomorrow to discuss the problem,” she said yesterday.

This came a day after layoff rumors started to circulate among Cathay flight attendants, with a screen capture on instant messaging platform WhatsApp alleging Cathay will start laying off employees starting today.

The message also alleged that Cathay reserved all meeting rooms at its headquarters for flight attendants to return their uniforms.

In response to media enquiries, Cathay refused to comment on speculation and rumors.

Cathay did not apply for the second tranche of the Employment Support Scheme earlier after receiving HK$600 million in subsidies and guaranteed to employ over 25,000 staff in the first tranche of the scheme.

Earlier, Cathay also received a HK$27.3 billion injection from the government’s Land Fund in June, which allows the government to appoint two observers to sit in on the company’s board meetings.