By Jean Christou
A VERY fragile peace settled over Cyprus Airways (CY) yesterday in the wake of last week’s crippling pilots’ strike, but it was evident that deep resentments still hovered beneath the surface.
CY made it clear early in the day that it intended to comply with the collective agreement it has with Eurocypria pilots and fill the disputed captain vacancy at the charter airline.
Around 100 pilots from CY’s Pasipy union want the promotions within the national carrier’s charter firm to be frozen, under a subsequent agreement to begin a dialogue on a policy of common seniority. CY said the second agreement did not supersede the first — a collective agreement.
Pasipy called an immediate 24-hour strike after CY advertised the vacancy last week, followed a day later by a 48-hour strike. The week’s industrial action affected over 40 flights and 15,000 passengers, and cost the company some £300,000.
The pilots decided late on Friday night to return to work as a sign of good will in the light of the government’s promise to appoint a two-man ministerial committee to investigate the dispute.
But this does not mean the filling of the captain vacancy in Eurocypria will be postponed, said CY spokesman Tassos Angelis.
“Our position is the same,” he said. “We believe the collective agreement is very clear and is signed by all parties, including Pasipy.”
He said the post had been announced in accordance with the collective agreement. “In the meantime if they (Pasipy) feel the agreement should change and they want to renew it on another basis, then all parties concerned should meet and sit down and hopefully find a mutually acceptable solution,” Angelis said. “We can’t accept a solution which is going to victimise other pilots.”
Pasipy spokesman George Charalambous was, however, surprised to hear CY was to go ahead with plans to fill the Eurocypria captain post.
“Let them go ahead and fill the vacancy,” he said. “If that’s the attitude they are going to take they will have to take all the consequences that go with it.”
Charalambous said Pasipy had been trying to set up some meetings with the government. “I don’t see any industrial action ahead unless they try to fill the vacancy,” he said.
But Eurocypria pilots have threatened to take action of their own if the vacancy is filled by Pasipy members.
Angelis said one solution would be if the pilots of both companies could agree among themselves to keep the work schedules going without the vacancies being filled until the problem was solved.
“If everyone is happy with that then we are happy not to fill the vacancy,” he said.
The cabinet on Thursday backed a proposal by the Communications and Works Minister to extend air deregulation if the pilots continued their industrial action.
