Cathay Pacific to restart vote on raising retirement age for cabin crew after system glitch causes concern
Support for plan would be followed by final vote to allow cuts in staff benefits to make higher age limit financially sustainable for the airline
A fresh vote has been ordered on raising the mandatory retirement age for Cathay Pacific Airways’ Hong Kong cabin crew, after concerns over vote manipulation marred the landmark ballot which began earlier this week.
Following a long-running industrial campaign, the company and the Flight Attendants’ Union will seek a simple majority on the proposal to up the retirement age from 55 to 60, allowing both sides to finalise a deal. The limit was last raised in 2008 from 45. Cathay Dragon cabin crew still retire aged 45.
It is being billed as the last chance for the 9,000-plus local workforce to make a decision.
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The ballot, which originally began on Tuesday, was halted after the union highlighted concerns that the online voting system could be tampered with to make it easy to vote multiple times.
On Wednesday afternoon the airline ordered a new ballot to start later this week, with all previous votes annulled, in an effort to protect the integrity of the final result.
“We are aware of some concerns regarding to the security of the survey [hyperlink],” an airline spokeswoman said. “Cabin crew who already cast their preference in the survey will be required to participate again when new link becomes available in the next few days.”
Following the three-week vote, the result will be revealed around the end of the month.
Cathay Pacific said the objective of the survey was to ascertain whether the majority of Hong Kong-based cabin crew wanted to see the retirement age raised.