Cathay Urged To Compensate Crews For Quarantine Plan

The chairwoman of Cathay Pacific's Flight Attendants Union, Zuki Wong, has urged the company to compensate staff who would be affected by its plans on how to deal with new quarantine rules for flight crews that are in the pipeline.

The government is expected to soon require crews to undergo 14 days of quarantine when returning from overseas, a move that the already struggling airline says could cut its current flight capacity by 60 percent.

Cathay is proposing that flight crews work for 21 days before returning to Hong Kong and that their quarantine period would be followed by another fortnight of rest days.

"Thirty-five days away from home will have a big impact, you can imagine the inconvenience it will cause. There are also quite a few crew that are couples... who's going to take care of their children and elderly if they need to work?" Wong asked.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, she also said that the company should give crews part of the outport allowances of up to HK$8,000 for a long-haul flight that they would miss out on, as they would be left without work for 28 days after returning to the city.

"If the company is going ahead with the plan, I hope it will compensate a little bit of the losses because we're unable to go to work," she said, adding that she isn't sure how many of her colleagues would join the scheme voluntarily.

Wong stressed that the risk of contracting Covid-19 is very low at work, as passengers aren't allowed on board without proof that they have tested negative for coronavirus and crews don't leave their hotel rooms when they're overseas.

Earlier this week, health authorities announced that flight crews who have visited "extremely high-risk" places such as the UK, South Africa and Brazil in the past 21 days must isolate at designated hotels for three weeks upon their arrival in the SAR.