Source: Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Author: 01/12/2009
Subject Concerned: Aircrew Airlines Human Resource
Cathay Pacific Airways is pleased that the Presiding Officer at the Labour Tribunal agrees with our view that Outport Allowance is a sum to defray special expenses incurred by the cabin crew by the nature of their employment on Jan. 12, and therefore, they are not "wages". We are also pleased that there is no suggestion that our current practice of determining statutory benefits for crew is unlawful.
However, we are disappointed with other aspects of the ruling, as we remain of the view that the provisions under the Employment Ordinance (prior to Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2007) do not require Line Duty Allowance, Ground Duty Allowance and/or Duty Free Sales Commission to be included in the calculation of Statutory Holiday Pay and Annual Leave Pay.
Moreover, we continue to believe that the claimants have been paid all their entitlements on their holidays, whether under Employment Ordinance or their contracts of employment. We are obviously disappointed that the Presiding Officer took a different view.
In the last few years there have been several cases concerning the interpretation of the statutory provisions being examined in our case. Despite the best efforts of numerous judges their impact on Hong Kong employers remain unclear. We are determined to achieve an element of clarity regarding this unsatisfactory legislation.
We understand that the decision of the Labour Tribunal is not legally binding on other claims in the Labour Tribunal or the higher Courts and cannot therefore provide sufficient legal certainty for a clear resolution for all relevant employees.
We will now consider the decision of the Presiding Officer carefully with our legal team. We believe that an appeal to a higher court may now become inevitable to enable us to fully resolve these outstanding issues for all relevant employees.