Resignation Info

[TruBlu351]

Hi Guys,

Just wonder if someone could clarify some company interpretation regarding "Payment in Lieu" for leaving early.......about a month in my case.

I thought that referred to "Salary ONLY", but now I've just been told that I need to pay them Salary AND HOUSING!

So instead of just coughing up HK$30K, for just under a month's work (slave labour I know!)....they want me to pay them the housing I would have received had I have been here. That sounds all asss about and is double dipping.

This is what they said:
I have confirmed with Payroll Section that the salary in lieu of insufficient notice will include all income, i.e. including basic salary, housing and other allowances. In accordance with the Labour Ordinance the daily average income for the 12 months prior to the leaving month will be used.

Here's the flipside! Do you honestly think the Company would pay me HOUSING in addition to lost salary if they were to terminate my employement?? Hell would freeze over first!

Can anyone please shed some light on this issue?

Cheers

Maybe I should just go and steal an Octopus machine from Maccas :}

[TruBlu351]

I'll just add that if my rental contract was still in force, then yes, I would pay it, but this contract ends well before I intend to leave.

[controlledCHAOS]

Mate, just leave and don't worry about it. There's nothing they can do. Guys have been sued in the past in their home countries, but only those who are based elsewhere and working under a contract from that country. If you are based in Hong Kong, you are working under a Hong Kong contract. They can do f** all about it.

Just ignore the idiots when they ask for the money...It wasn't Sten Kroutil was it?

That whole business with asking for the HOUSING as part of their charge for insufficient notice is a bunch of crap. Salary I can understand, but housing? That's just CX showing their true colours.

[JoeShmoe]

"Here's the flipside! Do you honestly think the Company would pay me HOUSING in addition to lost salary if they were to terminate my employement?? Hell would freeze over first!"

Uhhh, yes they would. It's happened in the past.

[Sir Donald]

Never burn bridges.As for CC ignore his rancor,as proven on numerous occasions he's better suited/fulfilled in a clapped out chieftain.

[controlledCHAOS]

The last thing you want to do is be honest with them. A mate of mine was and was tricked into going down to the IRD for some "formality paper"..where they confiscated his passport and demanded all his taxes before he could leave town.

Becareful, Cathay Pacific is not your friend.

[TheHKAOA]

As others have said on many occasions, in many threads, don't listen to CC.

The Employment Ordinance, not the Labour Ordinance, does define salary to include housing allowance. When CX terminate with salary in lieu of notice they DO pay housing allowance as well.

Goes back many years when someone was terminated and he won a case at the tribunal that his payment in lieu of notice should include housing allowance(which CX had refused to pay). He won his case and that set the legal precedent.

CX does sue in home country if you do a runner.

You might want to consider whether a future employed would ask CX for a reference.

[JoeShmoe]

Regardless of why you are leaving, do the right thing...just because it is the right thing to do.

We are defined by our character/integrity...not by our company's lack of it.

Good luck where ever you are going.

[Yeager]

Just dont give a rats ass mate. This company is a bunch of fouckwiitz. Give them back only what they deserve and never look back :ok:

Must have been an easy decision!! :ok:
Good luck in your future endavours!! :ok:

[TruBlu351]

Thanks for the info.

I'd drop a few barrels of napalm on that bridge (I have enough options) BUT..........my new job will require me to come through Honkers, and who knows what land mine they'll have waiting for me at the immigration check point!....so I'll be gladly ticking the IRD box and grudgingly the CX one.

The definition of the term "Payment in Lieu of" means "payment in place of" or "payment instead of", and in my case, "what will the company lose in the place of me leaving"?

I don't belive the scenarios of leaving and being sacked are the same. The losses incurred by each party are different, and this is determined by who initiates the termination.

What will they lose "in lieu" of me leaving? It's ONLY the hours I put in at work during the month. To say that they lose out by not paying my housing is absolutely rediculous. Simply by the fact of not paying my rent, they are benefitting, not losing. I'm not sure what the lawyer was thinking when he recommended that ruling!

The INTENT of the clause in the contract regarding leaving should be, "what LOSS do I incur upon the company due leaving and how can I repay it"? That's the RIGHT THING.

Well, at least after taking 90% of my provident fund, they can't argue that there's not enough cash for drinks and mixed nuts to throw a fleet party! Drinks on me :ok:

RANT OFF :}

[HardRock]

Simple as this.
They will be losing the 3 months that you guaranteed them you would give.
If you don't pay them, you will hit the Immigration counter with your new outfit, and most likely loose your passport until you do pay up.
I'm not on anyone's side, but this is the reality.... if you don't pay CX out, don't plan on returning to HK.

HR :ok:

[Dragon69]

If you don't pay them, you will hit the Immigration counter with your new outfit, and most likely loose your passport until you do pay up.


What the hell are you guys talking about :ugh::ugh:The Immigration Department is not a collection agency for Cathay or any other company in HKG. In order for the Immigration Department to retain your passport, that order has to come from the highest authority AND NO IT IS NOT CATHAY.

Cathay will have to go through plenty of legal mumbo jumbo to first win the case, then to request the courts to order the Immigration Department to retain your passport. And although extremely unlikely, if they do retain your passport, and you tell them you have no money, what are they going to do, keep you here indefinitely against your will?? Don't be too naive!

[Yeager]

Good fun the see how some of the boyz are scared off by mother Cathay. Living the Cathay Pathetic dream huh? Taking your passport for f@ck sake.. Uhh then you cant go from DB to Stauntons, right. :}:ok:

[iceman50]

"Yeager" you are more to be pitied than scolded, what a sad individual you are.:zzz:

Listen to the "oracle" at your peril.

If you have not settled your tax affairs before leaving HK then the Immigration Department WILL hold your passport for the IRD / Government, not Cathay.

[Dragon69]

Not paying owed taxes to any government is a serious offense and can include jail time, tax evasion is a criminal offence, hence the Immigration Department have the authority to retain your passport in this instance. However, owing Cathay money based on their interpretation of a loose employment contract doesn't mean the Immigration Department will automatically retain your passport on behalf of Cathay...that's just BS!

If I were leaving HKG not to ever work for Cathay, I would make sure my taxes were paid up and F:mad: whatever Cathay thinks it deserves.

[Yeager]

Why would u not pay your taxes. Your earn your money and you pay your tax. This is about Cathay Pathetic and NOT the IRD.

Iceboy, when are u gonna cut off that little ponytail of yours :D

[TheHKAOA]

Two certainties in life: one day you will die and the taxman will get you.

The law in HKG was changed some years back when the courts decided that Immigration Department acted unlawfully in acting as an agent for revenue department by stopping someone coming into HKG who owed salaries tax. Since then they have stopped doing it.

So you'd be safe coming through immigration but don't rest easy in the belief that revenue department won't try and get you, because they will.

[Lowkoon]

Do a flyby.

[don-one]

tru-blue... check your pm's

[whizzing72]

You could ask them for leave without pay for 3mo!? ; )

[TruBlu351]

Mate, I asked for that too! I said in regards to the current economic climate that I would be doing you guys a favour......"We have no plans to cut back....."

3 weeks later the voluntary leave comes out!

I could have saved 4 guys from voluteering for the leave without pay scam.

[XCX5X]

LISTEN TO 400 JOCKEY!!!!!!!!!

Its good Gin or what ever the hell you guys say!

XCX5X

[BlunderBus]

...why not ask the company if THEY give salary AND housing when they make people redundant???
I bet you 3 months pay that there are 49 guys who DIDN'T get salary and housing when they got the chop!!:\

[TruBlu351]

I've been doing a bit of research into the issue......

It's CX and the HK labour laws at their absurd best :mad:

Accord to the Hong Kong labour laws, "WAGES" constitutes payment for "Work done or to be done" by an employee. "I've got them....I thought!!" :=

Clause 1 of this definition specifically states: ALLOWANCES FOR ACCOMMODATION ARE NOT TO BE CLASSED AS WAGES.

BUT, as usual, CX is in bed with the HK laws so they somehow get out of paying taxes etc......which is why CX now pays it's employees the accommodation allowance as CASH.

According to the HK Labour Department, this CASH PAYMENT direct to the employee bypasses the definition of an ACCOMMODATION ALLOWNACE as it starts life as a simple cash payment on paper which now reclassifies it as WAGES. How freaking dumb is that when it SPECIFICALLY states HOUSING PAYMENT on my monthly salary and is in and out of my hands in the click of a button.

If CX was to pay my landlord directly then this would be a different issue, but because the ACCOMMODATION ALLOWANCE changes hands a few times before it gets to my landlord, it somehow becomes my WAGES. TOOLS.

[broadband circuit]

BlunderBus,

I might like to claim that 3 months thanks. I'm pretty sure that the owner-occupier 49ers with a mortgage were paid housing & salary for 3 months. I'm not sure what the renters got.

Either way, the sacking of the 49er was an abomination, for which there is no excuse, and I personally hope that anyone responsible burns in Hell.

[BlunderBus]

broadband..you and i really must have a drink sometime:ok: