PYL,
You mentioned 'Although I must confess I'm a little confused by the hostility.'
Simply put, the terms and conditions that you aspire to join on, will become the new target for Cathay to drive existing employee's towards. History shows us this.
I joined when there was no scale. The term 'A' scale was only introduced when the 'B' was devised, so on and so forth as successive inferior scales, such as ASL, or 'C' scale were introduced. My conditions effectively froze until the 'B' scale caught up to the point where my salary had stagnated. Thereafter it rose in line with the 'B'scale, but it took many years to do so.
If history repeats itself, as is likely, you can perhaps begin to understand why you sense a degree of hostility. Every new joiner affirms in the managements view that the new low bar is acceptable, and it is now extraordinarily low. Get a copy of the new 'Policy of Service', not just the highlights document. Management will probably term it COS18. Understand it well before you commit.