Originally Posted by
VforVENDETTA
When contracts were on chopping blocks in US after 9/11, companies had to file for bankruptcy, go to court, show cause for any and all cuts and open their books for a bankruptcy judge to decide and approve everything.
In Hong Kong nothing at all was required to be shown to anyone and it was perfectly legal to rip up an employment contract summarily. All that was needed for this to happen was an extremely unscrupulous employer to decide to do it.
In Hong Kong, it was proven that a contract you sign with an employer (cathay pacific) isn't worth the toilet paper it is signed on. Proven via legal precedence.
This was not what cathay pacific implied up to that point at all. During the interview process the interviewers showed us selected sections of "the contract" including the pay scales making a strong point doing the math about how much you will earn if you spend 10, 20 etc years on that payscale, among a few other strong point in there. Pay, Career progression, last in first out protection etc were harped upon. A very strong effort was put in to make the point how strong and enforceable of a contract it was. All proven to be lies. The outrageous thing is that after all that, cathay pacific is still lying outright about what a new prospect can expect from working at cathay. As if anything cathay pacific says, even if written in an employment document has any chance of being anything other than a lie. You can clearly see this from the type of questions being asked by people considering working for cathay. That they can have any expectations of pay, progression, equipment assigned, job security etc. They wouldn't be asking these questions if they weren't being lied to by cathay pacific. If you too lie to them when they ask for your help... shame on you.
Let them make their decisions with open eyes, with truth in hand.
Don't try to glorify or normalize the utterly sh!t situation you're in regarding your employer to make yourself feel better.
Even if cathay pacific is forced to put everyone back on pre covid contracts, nobody in the right state of mind would take such a document seriously ever again.
If you don't have any other choice better than pilot employment in Hong Kong, then yes it makes sense to accept the high risk employment with the likes of cathay pacific. But only if you're truly that desparate. I'm here to tell you yes I would if I was that desparate or had some extremely pressing reason to be in Hong Kong. Loved ones, family etc. I was lucky to be able to get a flying job making 3 times what a cathay captain tops out at. I resigned with zero notice given overnight, just like cathay pacific ripped up my contract overnight.
I understand that speaking the truth when truth is inconvenient to those who simply have no decent choice and are forced to accept the conditions at cathay which is not only substanrard but entirely unstable and it forces them to see the reality of the sh!tty situation they're in resulting in feelings of anxiety, hopelessness and helplessness. But this is not a valid reason to withhold the truth. No apologies to those who display such feelings here on this form or elswhere whenever inconvenient truths are written or spoken. But yes I do feel for you and your predicament.
It is an inconvenient truth.
It’s also a selective truth.
Anyone who’s joined any department of CX over the past few decades has either known their contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, or was naive.
I’ve no issues with educating the naive, but which group did you fall into following;
The A scale sign or be fired.
The 49ers.
The Adelaide instructors.
The Paris based pilots.
The Frankfurt based pilots.
The Californian based crew.
The cabin crew contract changes.
The engineers contract changes.
Naive? Or willing to take the risk it wouldn’t happen to you? Or risk that if it did you’d still be better off than the alternatives on offer?
Even QF in the nanny state of Australia has ripped up contracts, admitted it was illegal, and happily paid the fine as it was cheaper than honouring the employment contract.
Yes, CX management is appalling, particularly in regards to honouring contracts. Has been for decades. Just because it’s now happened to you doesn’t make it newsworthy.
They finally gave you the straw that broke your back. Thats understandable. Move on, instead of just threatening to.