Council 26 - Hong Kong
About Council 26
Representing United Airlines Flight Attendants based at HKG. Local CWA #29026
October Base Update (Oct 21, 2020)
October Base Update (Oct 21, 2020)
Greetings Council 26,
This month has been nothing but confusion, anxiety and unanswered questions for all of us. We are making every effort to get correct answers for you in an ever changing environment and its been extremely challenging. You have noticed that due to separation United has locked out members from CCS,Flying together and My Info, yet these functions are needed to access pay advices and Help Hub. It seems at this moment there are some that have received a response from the company that FT/CCS access is still available until October 30. We are seeking clarification on whether or not these functions have been restored to all members. Separation letters have been mailed to your home addresses on file with the company. Many of you have inquired about the 10 day notice message that appeared on the HH page for retirement/resignation. The Company has waived that time line. You have until October 30 to make a decision on retirement/resignation.
Labour Department
On October 12th AFA members Debbi Ngai, Jackie Sim and Maryanne Knight along with myself met with the Labour Officers of the Labour Relations Division in Kwai Chung to discuss bringing forward our case to the Labour Tribunal. These talks covered long service pay, possible MPF and any concerns that the flight attendants present brought forward. We asked for three volunteers to step forward to begin the process and we sincerely thank these members for their dedication and for volunteering their time. We met with Ms. SIT and Ms. Si ( both Labour Officers)and they prepared Debbi, Jackie and Maryanne for the upcoming process and explained the procedures. It is a three step (minimum)process and the Tribunal must find the case valid in order to move forward. Unfortunately, we must wait for the outcome of the Cares Act because as long as Flight Attendants continue to receive pay from United Airlines the process can not move forward to the tribunal. Should the case move forward everyone that wishes to participate that is not taking retirement or resignation will need to apply individually just as these three Flight Attendants have done. Please read the advice and the procedure provided by
Tanner De Witt here Tanner De Witt Counsel.pdf
You may also visit the following websites for more information.
www.mpfa.org.hk
http://www.labour.gov.hk
Home Affairs Department Free Legal Advice Service:
http://www.dutylawyer.org.hk
Pass Travel
As a reminder, the separation date for FRA, HKG and NRT flight attendants was October 1,2020 during the extension period (until October 30,2020) pass travel and interline travel is not permitted.
Please note that any travel benefits restored were done in error.
Cash Plan
We’ve gotten some questions from those Members who are not eligible for contributions to the 401(k) or UK Stakeholder Plan about what has been reported as “missing Cash Plan payments” from the most recent pay checks. Please be advised of the following:
The normal process for the cash plan payment is for it to be paid on the next check.
A correction was made this past weekend after the normal paychecks were issued to generate the payments.
Because that data is now available, United will process an “off cycle “ to ensure this payment is made and it will have a check date of 10/26/20.
As an additional clarification, the last paycheck includes the payout for accumulated, unpaid vacation. However, final vacation payments are not eligible for the 8% Cash plan payment. The final check will not exactly match 8% of the total paycheck because of this exception.
Insurance
We continue to have confusion about insurance for those that have been transferred and for those that are separated. We are trying to get clarification on all points as soon as possible.
For those that are separated United refunded your premiums in your October 16 paychecks so you are not covered by Aetna International in the month of October but you have the ability to purchase the COBRA for the Month of October.
For those that transferred to a domestic base your insurance plan is determined on where you are based or your new current address. For those of you that have been switched to Aetna PPO
- The terms of the insurance were processed on 10/13/2020.
- AETNA received the new plan details on 10/13/2020 with a retro effective date of 10/01/2020.
- Members are showing enrollment in a domestic plan effective 10/01/2020.
- Members are showing correctly on the secure member website. Because of the date AETNA received the termination of the plan and the fact that it can take up to 48 hours for the international data to migrate over, it is possible that when members checked the information, the website was not yet updated.
***Intl to domestic base change employees have 45 days to close their status change event. Until they make an election or the enrollment window closes, they will show in the Intl plan. Once they do make the election, the event will close and the coverage will be retroactive back to the 10-1 date.
Members were all mailed a status change enrollment form from the UABC in early October (around the 6th).
Processed to be used in Return of Company Property via DHL Hits a Snag
For those Flight Attendants based in the three international bases of FRA, NRT and HKG who are affected by the closure of their bases as well as domestic Flight Attendants residing in International cities who have been provided instructions to return company property via DHL have hit several bumps in the road when trying to use the process set up between United and DHL. We’ve heard from many of you that you are experiencing problems when attempting to use the United/DHL process and DHL is providing a number of different explanations as to next steps. In many cases, those instructions are increasing not only your frustration, but your concern about not meeting the October 30, 2020 return deadline that has been established by the company.
We have had a number of conversations with management about the efforts that are underway to fix the DHL process. In the meantime, we’ve shared our concerns about your inability to return the equipment. Management has acknowledged that it is not reasonable to hold you to that deadline if the process established by the company does not support your efforts to meet the deadline.
Today, we have clearly established with management, if you are making the effort to return the equipment via DHL and are experiencing difficulties in doing so because of disruptions in the United/DHL process, management will not reasonably hold you to the October 30th deadline.
Council Contacts
Council 26 remains active for the 230 members that were not transferred. For those of you that have transferred here are the contacts of the Local Council Presidents at those locations.
DEN Ken Kyle kkyle@unitedafa.org
EWR Kim Montgomery kmontgomery@unitedafa.org
IAD Jill Collins jcollins@unitedafa.org
IAH Elizabeth Hibbard ehibbard@unitedafa.org
LAS Bill Carico laspresident@unitedafa.org
ORD Scott Pejas spejas@unitedafa.org
SFO Kaitlin White kwhite@unitedafa.org
In Solidarity,
Kim
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