Oriva Smith was looking forward to celebrating her birthday with best friends and colleagues Saufa’asi Fullman-Marr and Sereana Vatubua at her home in Votualevu, Nadi, yesterday.
But their joy was cut short when the three Fiji Airways flight attendants received their termination letters minutes after Mrs Smith received a birthday message from the company.
“I saw my birthday message first before I found the termination letter,” said Mrs Smith.
“I’ll never forget this day.”
The mother of five said she was sad to see the end of her 15-year career with the airline.
Mrs Fullman-Marr who served 16 years as a flight attendant said they did not expect to be out of work after giving up a few work benefits over the past few months.
“Termination was not one of the things that we were expecting,” she said.
“Especially when we had suspended a lot of things like allowances and benefits that was usually given out to cabin crew.
“We had our union that was negotiating cost cutting and had given recommendations on the areas that could be reduced.
“People were also willing to go on leave without pay as long as we had our work to come back to.”
She said the cabin crew who were given their termination letters yesterday made up more than 50 per cent of those who lost their jobs.
“Between the three of us who’s been with the airline for 15 and 16 years, we didn’t think that we would be given termination letters.
“We thought we were safe.
“So all of us are trying to process this news. We’ve been crying and also trying to keep each other’s spirits up but at the same time we keep thinking about what will happen after this.”
Mrs Vatubua explained they were facing an uncertain future.
“We’ve gotten calls from every family member and friends even those overseas who still can’t believe what happened.
“It will take a while for us to really accept that this has really happened to all of us.”
