Short answer - YES, for now
Long answer... CX (mis) management are busy reviewing the whole age 55 retirement thing. The DFO has already stated that he would like to see age 60 retirement, but there are issues to resolve with the
AOA (Aircrew Officers Association) first - as an aside, why he choses to do this now, after 8 years of determined attacks in the worst Frank Lorenzo style with a view to destroy the union (membership is barely a majority - just 51%) he wants the union's consent is just beyond all of us.
You should know that this same management, in an attempt to intimidate the pilot body, unjustifiably, without warning and without any means of appeal, fired 23 Captains and 28 First Officers. The demographics of the victims did not reflect the demographics of the aircrew body. Every pilot, save one, was flying long haul. One in three 49ers was Canadian even though Canadians represent only 15% of Cathay pilots. Only one locally employed pilot was terminated although nearly 10% of pilots are locally employed. Four of the union’s seven Labour Department negotiators were fired. Five of the union’s 20-strong General Committee were fired. The overall spread of pilots ranged from the most junior (2 years in the Company) to the most senior pilots (approaching retirement and with 23 years’ service). One had been a Fleet Manager. They are still not employed by Cathay and every attempt to bring the matter to court has been stymied by CX's lawyers, pitting their very large war chest against the AOA's (small) war chest. They have been unsuccessfully trying to bankrupt the union.
All of The 49ers were contractually entitled to a minimum of 3 months’ salary in lieu of notice. In fact, management withheld payment of such funds on the pretext of possible tax liability. Management then informed the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) that all of The 49ers were leaving Hong Kong; the result was that the IRD issued immediate tax demands to be paid within 7 days irrespective that many of The 49ers are permanent residents of Hong Kong. When some of The 49ers approached the IRD they were initially treated sympathetically and told that the tax demands could be held over provided they were not leaving Hong Kong. However, as soon as the officials found out that they were “the Cathay pilots”, they immediately changed their stance and insisted that the demands be paid in full by the due date. The situation was worse for based officers who used their crew mailboxes as their IRD contact address. Management returned their tax demands to the IRD as “address unknown”. Thus, these officers did not know they had outstanding tax demands. Failure to pay tax demands by the due date can result in significant financial penalty. Only 2 of The 49ers were not subjected to this treatment by the IRD and both have Chinese names. Management further exacerbated circumstances by misreporting The 49ers’ income. The payment, purportedly in lieu of notice, was reported as income and therefore taxable, whereas payments in lieu of notice are actually non-taxable. Similarly, management reported housing assistance and travel allowance as fully taxable income. The result was that The 49ers received tax demands far in excess of their actual tax liability but they still had to pay them immediately. Despite the IRD’s alacrity in issuing these demands, some 49ers have still not been repaid money owing.
The 49ers, despite a 100% salary and benefits cut and inflated tax demands, were expected to be “self-funding” for the first 3 months. Thereafter, the Association adopted financial responsibility for their welfare. The Membership voted to increase union subscriptions from 1% of salary to 5% to support all the 49'ers. This support continues to this day.
Read all about it under the heading "The 49'ers" at the above URL.