Why Cathay Pacific’s firing of employees amid the Hong Kong protests should worry us all

I refer to the letter “Don’t boycott Cathay Pacific, tens of thousands of Hong Kong jobs are at stake” (August 30) in which Anuradha Singh voiced concerns over the idea of boycotting the Hong Kong airline.

While I appreciate her concern for the Cathay employees who may face termination should the airline’s business be severely impacted, her worries simply reiterate the message delivered by government officials at various press conferences over the past few weeks: should the protests continue, the local economy will suffer.

After Cathay, tycoons will have to pick a side in Hong Kong’s protest crisis

On the grounds of ensuring passenger or aviation safety, Chinese regulators insisted that flights can only enter mainland airspace after the airline’s employees have been vetted. The safety warning came in early August. By the end of the month, the number of dismissals in the aviation industry had reached at least 20.

Surprisingly, albeit being suspected of participating in illegal protests, most of the dismissed workers’ allegedly unsafe behaviour did not cause the police to take action, investigate and impose appropriate charges. Some were shocked by the company’s swift actions, tearfully informing us that the everyday use of social networking sites could now be turned against employees. It appears that for Cathay, social media posts were enough to justify immediate dismissal of its loyal staff, without instituting any further disciplinary procedures.

Since when is engaging in peaceful political discourse so wrong and intolerable that one’s political beliefs are seen as affecting passenger safety? Why should our everyday interactions on Facebook be used against us in the workplace? Cathay should explain to the public why it dismissed its workers.

If the economy is all the city should care about, and that to achieve moderate prosperity, businesses in Hong Kong ought to please the mainland authorities with strategies such as vetting their staff’s political backgrounds, Hongkongers should ask themselves one very fundamental question: why do we need the Basic Law?

M. Ip, Kwun Tong