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In 1973, a group of senior cabin attendants from
Honk Kong formed the Cabin Attendants Association ( CAA ) in
order to organize activities so that members could meet outside their flying
duties. Activities were basically for
social purposes which included majong dinners, barbecues, etc. At that time, the Passenger Service Department
(today's ISD) was part of a small Cathay family. There was no
established system or policies for what we take for granted nowadays. Among many issues, the inequality between
male and female crew was the most controversial: There was basically no career for females. INEQUALITY BETWEEN MALE
AND FEMALE CREW Ü Female crew joined and worked as junior C/A and
progressed thru to work as galley hostess in EY, then galley hostess in FRCL.
The only promotion was to be First Class Senior Hostess (equivalent to SP1
nowadays) which was a rank at the top of the ladder for females then. Ü Male C/A joined as Flight Pursers ( More or less
like FP6 nowadays ) and were promoted directly to Chief Pursers after
successful assessment by Chief Pursers and Cabin Standard Officers who were
senior cabin crew. (Doesn't it
resemble somewhat like the MBPS today?)
Therefore, after FAU was formed in 1975, the Exco immediately tasked themselves with negotiating a promotion system by SENIORITY so as
to allow all female hostesses to be given the same promotion opportunity. Ü
Females also had to retire at the age of 30 while males could fly until
55. Although the Sex Discrimination Ordinance
came into effect in December 1996, the FAU has put equal opportunities as its first item on its agenda after
it was formed in 1975.
Over the years, through negotiation, retirement age for females has been raised from 30 in the 70's to 35 in late 70's, and 40 in mid 80's and then 45 in 1993. (And now all females who
joined before 1993 will be able to elect to retire at 45 or 55. The FAU
will continue to lobby for increasing the retirement age to 55 for crew who
joined after 1993. ) In 1974, the Company was expanding very fast,
crew felt a strong need to get the CAA to look into working conditions and
employees' right etc. In particular,
there were two serious issues that the crew wanted to discuss with the
company: i)
Because
of the Vietnamese War at
the time, cabin crew and their families were very worried about the safety
risk of flying to Saigon. Therefore
the CAA tried to urge the company to
stop flying into Saigon. ii) The CX410 used to be a 3 sector flight
going HKG-TPE-TYO-SEL. Our Japanese hostesses used to get physical
abuse and assault in the streets of Seoul when the crew stayed over
there. Therefore they requested CAA
to suggest to the company that Japanese Hostesses only stay in TYO on the
CX410. HOW INDUSTRIAL ISSUES
BEGAN ! The CAA committee members tried to
negotiate with the Cabin Crew Management then but were told that the CAA was
not a legal body and Management refused to hold formal talks even on issues
so concerned by the crew. In the Summer of 1975, cabin crew were driven to take industrial action - the first strike in
the history of Cathay Pacific. At the same time, the CAA committee took legal
advice and formally registered the association as one of the legitimate Trade
Unions under the legislations set by the Registrar of Trade Unions
(RTU). On 17 December 1975, the
Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendant's Union was officially founded. The former CAA members were then
invited to join the FAU
and new recruits were introduced to
the Union at the end of their induction training. When the CAA was formed, the residence of the first
Chairman, Mr. Chan KC, Leo was used as the office for the Association. Soon
after FAU was formally registered as a legal trade union, the General Manager
kindly offered to FAU a proper office space within the Cathay Premises and
FAU has been moving together with ISD all these years. In 1987, an agreement
was signed by FAU, GMIS and General Staff Manager to formally
establish Union recognition. It stated that: FULL UNION RECOGNITION
The
Company fully recognizes the FAU as representing Flight Attendants and
provides considerable assistance to the Union in carrying out its activities
including the provision of an office and associated services, payroll deduction
of Union dues, access to the Company internal mail system and notice
boards. All Flight Attendants are
free to choose whether they wish to join the Towards the end of 1991, the breakdown of
the Year End Negotiations nearly sparked off industrial action but eventually
only a couple of flights suffered a one hour delay. However the long overdue unresolved industrial problems had
finally led to the 17 days strike in January1993. After the strike, all three Unions were
asked to vacate the Cathay Premises and FAU was even taken to court by the
Company. The court case was finally
resolved by an out of court settlement in February 1998, just 5 months before
the opening of CLK Airport. Both
sides agreed that FAU would be allowed to rent commercial space at HK$33 per
square foot in Cathay City, near the present location of Vogue Laundry.
However the Company eventually changed its mind and decided to offer free
lease of an office space in the Airline Stores Building, where FAU is
presently located. THE FAU'S MISSION
"We
continuously strive to
communicate as ONE collective voice, protect and improve Conditions of
Service, ensure justice for all CX cabin crew as well as constructively
inform Members and support the organizational growth of Cathay Pacific! Ever since
its formal establishment, FAU and ISD have been meeting once a month. These meetings have been led by General
Manager from ISD and Chairman from FAU. Towards the
end of each year, Year End Negotiations (YEN) are held with a view to improve
the remuneration, benefits, rostering systems and other Conditions of Service
generally to protect the interests of cabin crew. Many of the FAU
negotiated Agreements were signed in those days when the membership was high
and industrial relations were amiable. Some of these agreements were
incorporated as part of remuneration, e.g. Line Duty Allowance (LDA) was introduced in 1989 at the rate of
$7.00 per flying duty hour. This has
been adjusted every year to reflect inflation. The system was further improved in 1994 when LDA was introduced
to serve as an incentive for turn around and split duty flights. It was to be paid at the rate of 4 times
the LDA"B" which has then become the term for normal / overnight
flight duty allowance originally introduced.
Today LDA is at $15.125 per
hour and LDA is at $60.50 per hour.
Depending on the crew category, sometimes the average income from LDA
can account for nearly 10% of the monthly salary. Besides the Line Duty Allowance, "Understaffing Penalty Payment"
was introduced in 1985 to compensate cabin crew on flights departing
with less than normal crew complement. (This entitlement is now extended to Hourly
Paid Crew as a result of FAU negotiation with Management). Many agreements were
introduced and incorporated in the benefit policies, e.g. housing
allowance for non-local cabin crew, bookable annual FOC tickets, crew luggage, free annual dental
cleaning, annual pep smear tests, medical coverage for dependants. Although a lot of the benefits have been
consolidated into Right Choice, the FAU will always be committed to monitor
and provide assistance wherever possible. As the
roster is the life line of all cabin crew, FAU has always been closely
and regularly involved in discussing the rostering system with the
Company. Besides, being knowledgeable with CAD requirements, FAU has never
ceased to monitor and ensure that cabin crew are sufficiently rested before
and after each flight and most importantly, a balanced life style can be
maintained. If you go through
the FAU Handbook, you would notice that many rostering practices, though not
CAD requirements, were introduced as a result of Union involvement in order
to protect the well-being of cabin crew.
Please note that Industrial
Agreements on rostering practices apply to all, including Hourly Paid
Crew. Membership was more than
90% at its peak in the 80's. Today our membership is staggering
around 66% and stands the chance of going down if we don't work hard to be
united. Can YOU imagine how different (Y)our work life would be if there was no
FAU or can YOU, as one single individual, negotiate (Y)our own terms and
conditions? We are
all one-winged individuals, ...Together Everyone Achieves More! By Becky Kwan |