$3m payout for Cathay strike hostess sacked over macadamia nuts

A Cathay Pacific flight attendant sacked after helping lead the 1993 strike yesterday won a $3 million payout from the airline.

Courtney Chong Cheng-lin had sued the airline for defamation over claims she had stolen macadamia nuts, a bottle of water and an in-flight magazine.

Cathay made the claims about Ms Chong, then the Cathay Flight Attendants' Union vice-chairman, in a press release and a company newsletter when she was sacked in May 1993.

Ms Chong, 42, said she was searched at Changi Airport on May 17, 1993, and had a gossip magazine given to her by a passenger confiscated.

She maintained she was sacked over her role in the 17-day Lunar New Year strike by 3,000 flight attendants in 1993, estimated to have cost Cathay millions.

Ms Chong announced the settlement yesterday. 'I've waited five long years for this and I've been through a lot of hardship, my career was destroyed - that money can't buy my career back. I just wanted to prove to the company that what they did was wrong. But I don't know how to start again.' She was sacked after 14 years' service - and with a promotion to chief purser pending - for providing an 'unsatisfactory explanation' as to why she had 'suspicious items' in her bag.

Backed by the Flight Attendants' Union and the Confederation of Trade Unions, Ms Chong argued that the theft accusation and her dismissal were motivated by management's desire to quash union activity.