If BA lose the appeal and the law recognise that HK based cabin crew should have the same T&C’s as the UK ones, could the court insist that the effectivity of this law be retroactive (i.e should Ms. Mak and others be compensated)? After all, Ms. Mak and others have already signed their contracts agreeing to the set terms and conditions with respect to retirement age at the time, which is in line with the regulation in their home country.
Some will undoubtedly argue that the T & C that the HK cabin crew have signed was unfair in the first place so it makes it void. But I disagree with this. I think that at the time when BA introduced this separate contract for HK cc’s, it was acting in good faith that it was not breaking any regulation. At the time, there was no specific law recognised that says the T&C’s of all employee groups of a UK company should be the same regardless of where they are based.
Therefore, wouldn’t it be likely that this new regulation on T&C should only affect some existing HK CC’s and future ones, but definitely not those who have already retired? Much like when UK law was changed with regards to retirement age in UK, there is always a cut-off point where the change is enforced.