Friday, July 26, 2002
Cathay secretly settles sex-bias dispute
EXCLUSIVE by ANGEL LAU
Cathay Pacific has re-hired a former model employee
sacked five years ago after striking a secret deal with her to end a sex dis crimination lawsuit.
The out-of-court settlement came
16 months after Sangasri Promthee sued her employer of 21 years for refusing to transfer her back to flying duties.
Ms Promthee, 50, resumed her flying career with Cathay Pacific this month as an inflight services manager, according to a spokeswoman for the airline.
Details of the settlement, which was struck behind closed doors last week, are subject to a confidentiality clause.
***Cathay Pacific is understood to have made several earlier offers to Ms Promthee but she had rejected them.
The settlement saved the District Court having to rule on her allegation that the airline's former policy was based on the premise that female staff over 45 were "no longer attractive" to its passengers. Cathay Pacific previously allowed male employees to remain on flying duties until 55 but female employees only until 45. This was abandoned after a District Court ruling in December 2000 that the policy was discriminatory.
The Hong Kong-based Thai woman is the first to sue under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance for alleged refusal to afford a person access to better job opportunities. Ms Promthee joined Cathay in June 1976 as a flight attendant and rose to the rank of chief purser before being made a probationary lounge manager in September 1996.
She did not pass her probation in May 1997 and was offered the post of manager on duty, which she declined. Instead, she asked to be transferred back to flying duties as a chief purser on May 10, 1997 - five months before she turned 46.
Ms Promthee was sacked in August 1997, a month after being featured in the airline's Marco Polo magazine as a model employee.
Back in the air: Former model flight attendant Sangasri Promthee after filing her writ against Cathay Pacific in March last year. SCMP photo
Worth the wait....Presumably backpay since being fired in 1997, compensation and her job back as an ISM.