TEN former security guards are suing the British government for £3 million for unfair dismissal from the British East Mediterranean Relay Station at Zygi four years ago.
Prosecution lawyer Neophytou Pirillides claims it will be the first case lodged against a foreign state in a Cyprus court.
The 10 employees were dismissed in 1997, as part of a massive downsizing project. They claim the number of employees was shaved from 150 to 35, as the Foreign Office suspended use of the BEMRS as an information distribution centre.
The station was left simply to broadcast the BBC World Service to North Africa and the Middle East.
The plaintives claim that their contracts guaranteed them jobs at the station until a retirement age of 65.
According to one man, who worked as a guard at BEMRS for nine years, the age was later lowered to 60, on the proviso that £1.5 million of a mutual profit fund was transferred to all employees’ pension schemes.
He said a document to that effect had been drawn up in May 1990 between management and the union, overseen by Foreign Office officials from London.
But he claims that when they were dismissed seven years later, they were given less than a day’s notice and paid off with just two months’ salary.
The man told the Cyprus Mail that it had taken him a year to find another job, despite having to provide for three children.
“My salary was £18-20,000. Of course I enjoyed it, because we had so many benefits, and the hours of work were good. It’s not easy to find a job in Cyprus with the same advantages,” he said.
He claimed that the £1.5 million, which should have been shared out between all employees, disappeared “abroad – probably London”.
The BBC World Service yesterday assured the Cyprus Mail that all ten security guards were given a six-figure redundancy package.
But the plaintives take issue with the forced redundancy, claiming earlier jobs were lost through voluntary retirement.
British High Commission spokesman Jonathan Allen said yesterday: “obviously this case is going to court, but we feel that although redundancies have to be made, they were made in accordance with Cyprus law.”
The hearing is scheduled for February 14-16 at Larnaca District Court.
The Relay Station is provided for in Annex B of the Treaty of Establishment as a retention site.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
