fair to adjust staff remuneration
HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific said it would pay 3,300 cabin crew back-pay after a court ruled the airline was in breach of their contracts by stopping their automatic pay rises.
A Cathay Pacific spokeswoman said the company decided not to appeal the High Court ruling in March and will make "appropriate" salary adjustments accordingly.
Although she declined to comment on how much this will cost the airline, union representatives have reportedly estimated the unpaid wages could reach 2.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (360 million US dollars).
"It is in everyone's interests that we now put the issue behind us in order that we can move forward together to grow Cathay Pacific into a stronger airline," the airline said in a statement.
The High Court earlier ruled in favour of the three cabin crew who said Cathay Pacific had violated their contracts from 1999 by not giving them an annual pay increase of 3.5 percent.
Cathay Pacific had said the change of policy was done to ensure its competitiveness after it was hard hit by the Asian financial crisis and later the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis in 2003.
The airline said it maintains the view that it is "fair to adjust staff remuneration in a way that reflects the company's ability to pay, individual staff contributions and the general economic climate".