Hong Kong Airlines has fired nine pilots who refused to sign new contracts that cut the basic salaries of cockpit crew to as little as HK$17,500 a month. The pilots - four first officers and five captains - were terminated after being given a deadline of March 31 to agree to the contracts, which the pilots say halve basic pay in some cases and diminish other entitlements. A spokesman for Hong Kong Airlines, which had 52 pilots before the sackings, confirmed the dismissals but denied those were connected to new contracts. He declined to say why the pilots, who were mostly expatriates from Australasia and South America, had been sacked. The move comes amid severe cost-cutting at the start-up airline, which operates Boeing 737 aircraft on regional flights in competition with airlines including Dragonair. Earlier this year, it asked all cockpit crew to take a week's unpaid leave. A copy of the new contract seen by the Sunday Morning Post cuts basic salaries to HK$17,500 a month for first officers with less than 1,500 hours of jet flying time, HK$20,000 a month for more than 1,500 hours of flying and HK$22,500 for more than 3,000 hours of flying. Captains with less than 3,000 hours of flying time will get HK$30,000 a month, while those with more than 3,000 hours will receive HK$40,000. In addition to their basic pay, each pilot receives a monthly market-based adjustment lump sum of HK$10,000 and the prospect of a further productivity-based payment ranging from HK$225 to HK$1,000. According to one of the sacked pilots, basic pay for captains was previously HK$75,000 or HK$65,000, depending on flying time, and HK$45,000 or HK$40,000 for first officers, although previous fixed market-based adjustment levels were lower. 'We declined to sign the new contract and wrote to management saying we wished to stay on our present contracts,' the pilot said. 'There was no response. Everybody who did not sign the new contract was simply terminated.' As well as slashing basic salaries, the pilot said, the new contract allowed the company to change annual leave entitlements as it deemed fit and make promotions discretionary rather than based on service. Letters were sent out to the nine pilots on April 2 telling them they were being terminated and wishing them 'all the best for the future' without giving any reason, according to another of the dismissed pilots. Eight of them have approached the Labour Department and are negotiating payoffs according to their notice periods. The ninth pilot is understood to have settled his case with management separately. In the confusion that followed the sackings, the pilots at first believed they were expected to continue flying as they served out their notice periods, something the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association warned would be 'a serious safety concern'. When they objected, they then believed they had to do ground duty and - in a bizarre incident last Tuesday - reported for office duty at the airport, only to find no one there able to assign them work. They say they have since been told they will not have to work out their notice periods. 'It has been a very traumatic time for some months,' one pilot said. 'Pilots have been asked to take no-pay leave and have been seconded to mainland airlines ... Most of us are just relieved it's over and the only surprise is that so many of our colleagues have agreed to stay on at such reduced terms.' The carrier declined to give further details of the dismissals or to be interviewed by the Post. Almost halved Monthly pay for pilots with the rank of captain at Hong Kong Airlines has been cut from HK$75,000 to, in HK dollars,: $40,000
