Posted on 02/05/2020 3:21:50 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Cathay Pacific is asking all of its 27,000 employees to take three weeks of unpaid leave over the coming months, the companys CEO told staff on Wednesday, as Hong Kongs flagship carrier reels from the impact of the deadly coronavirus on air travel.
I am appealing to each and every one of you to help, said Augustus Tang Kin-wing in a taped video recording, adding the situation the company faced was just as grave as the global financial crisis of 2009.
Preserving our cash is now key to protecting our business, he said.
Cathay wants staff to take leave on a voluntary basis between March and June, and hopes all staff, including senior managers, will take part in the scheme.
Airlines have been rocked by the spread of the coronavirus, which started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. It has played havoc with air travel, with travellers cancelling trips to affected destinations and border restrictions around the world on people who have recently visited mainland China.
A Cathay Pacific flight attendant, in his 30s, said the special leave scheme was reasonable, but also complained the airline had not supplied sufficient face masks to protect crews in-flight.
When the airline does not even have enough masks, its not bad to let us go on leave, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
I’m surprised that there’s not an insurance product for this...
Nice idea, but there’s no way 3 weeks will be enough.
This may burn itself out in six months, or it may not, but if Europe and the United States want to escape the worst, the engagement with China has to be over.
And since Canada is not restricting travel to or from China, and we have a 3000 mile undefended land border, I’m not sure we get out of this anyway.
There is.
And insurers will go the way of AIG in 2008
For the few that offer it, yep.
We need to return to the pre-Nixon rules for China.
Agreed .
Stop all flights now .
The place is infected
There might be a few renegade pilots and flight attendants that might take a permanent leave of vacation as soon as one of their planes land in another country, and they might never come back.
Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the Bring Out Your Dead ping list (formerly the Ebola ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the Bring Out Your Dead threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.
My company sent a letter stating that any employees who have been to China recently are to stay home for two weeks
Bkmk
China owns Canada. Lock, Stock and Barrel
My company sent a letter stating that any employees who have been to China recently are to stay home for two weeks.
Is that with pay?
We’re gonna need another wall.
Global tourism collapsing. Not good.
Domestic tourism will take up some of that.
This will rapidly escalate with the airlines. First ask for “voluntary” consumption of vacation. Then mandatory use of vacation. Then layoffs. Then temporary mothballing of aircraft. Then bankruptcy.
I didn’t realize that Canada wasn’t following suit and shutting down China travel. That is bad news. Will US Customs now have to survey all travelers crossing the border to see if they’ve been to China and take the temperatures or everybody in the vehicle? That sounds bad, especially in and around Vancouver.
Exactly. First, ground all planes for 10 days to make sure they’re not infected. Then stop all flights within 500 miles of any confirmed case.
I’m sure it is.
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