Eighteen of the '49ers' - the pilots sacked en masse by Cathay Pacific Airways during an industrial dispute in 2001 - have won compensation and damages expected to total more than HK$61 million for unfair dismissal and defamation.
A Court of First Instance judge yesterday handed the pilots a victory in their long-running legal battle, with individual awards of HK$3.3 million for defamation together with a month's pay and HK$150,000 for the sackings.
Mr Justice Anselmo Reyes ruled the airline had contravened the Employment Ordinance by dismissing the pilots without a valid reason, adding that they had been sacked primarily because of union activities. He also held that remarks by former director and chief operating officer Philip Chen Nan-lok and chief executive Tony Tyler after the sackings were defamatory.
The defamation awards were thought to be among the highest in Hong Kong's legal history.
The unfair dismissal award did not apply to one of the pilots, George Crofts, who had already won his claim in an employment tribunal in London, while another pilot, Gregory England, who died in January 2002, was excluded from the defamation award. His dependents will receive the HK$150,000 and month's pay.
The others are John Wahram, Kenneth Carver, John Dickie, Michael Fitz-Costa, Douglas Gage, Quentin Heron, Brian Keene, Pierre Morissette, Damon Neich-Buckley, Matthew Rogers, Michael Shaw, Christopher Sweeney, Hendrik Van Keulen, Brett Wilson, Campbell Blakeney-Williams and Craig Young.