Guru, you ask reasonable questions and are to be commended for acessing CX prior to employment. Many people do not and are resentful of not knowing the facts after major decisions have been made.
Contract compliance IS work to rule. That is, we work our contract and do no more. We are not required to be contactable unless at work or on rosterted reserve duty. The rostering dept are in such a shambles that not being contactable to work on our days off makes things very difficult for the company. We do this to try to force change for the good, both for us, and the company. At present there is much waste of resources in our rostering practices.
If CX employed enough pilots to do the job without a constant requirement for our good will things would be ok. As it is our lives and the lives of our families are constantly in turmoil due to roster disruption.
In other Western countries working ones contract is the norm. In CX's eyes it makes us the emeny.
With regard to salary, yes you are missing something. An S/O with little experience is paid "quite handsomely" as you put it. The problem arises when that pilot has gained the experience to progress in the ranks and assumes greater responsibilites. His pay then lags behind our major competition. You should think here of disposable income. HK is a very expensive place to live. Also of major concern is our pension scheme for post 1993 officers which could be defined as an industry standard JOKE.
What you must understand is that the pilot group are the good guys here. We have the moral high ground so to speak and we want nothing more than what was taken from us by this and previous management regimes.
As an example of the moral issues; A HK court's Judge's decision on basing issues in mid 1990's stated quite clearly that the company only had a moral obligation to comply with its contract. Of course it had no morals and did not comply so officers got shafted over basings for the first time of many. This in theory can't happen to us again as we now have a "legally binding" contract on most issues. I for one can't see a problem by abiding by that contract until we can get it improved. Rostering issues are in the contract and there is a requirement for the company and its pilots to work it out. That does not mean we role over, play dead and let the company get everything it wants. Imposition of changes to work practices are from the dark ages and we won't accept it any longer. Either it's negotiated or not on!
There ends the sermon.