AN ONGOING strike at JCC Payment Systems Limited is poised to send the economy into chaos, as the Commercial Bankers Association prepares to halt all credit and debit card transactions in Cyprus this week.
Transactions worth more than £35 million remain incomplete due to the strike, which began on November 27 and involves all 63 employees at the JCC electronic centre. JCC is the primary processor of card transactions in Cyprus.
General Manager Takis Fekkos expressed concern that due to JCC’s inability to process card transactions, shoppers were spending more than they could afford.
“There are real credit risks right now,” Fekkos said. “A lot of people are spending money they don’t have, because it’s not being taken from their accounts and they’re not getting the bills. But they will still owe it to the bank when this is resolved.”
Direct cash withdrawal from ATMs has not been affected, and banks have worked around the strike to accommodate interbank transfers, Fekkos said.
JCC management has assured businesses, which have not received any money from cardholder purchases in the last two weeks, that the transactions will be processed as soon as the strike is revolved. However, Fekkos said that he could not estimate when this would happen, due to the silence from banking union ETYK.
“The union hasn’t been vocal about what they want,” Fekkos said.
ETYK representatives did not return calls for comment.
The labour dispute began when JCC re-hired an information technology specialist, reinstating him to his previous post of deputy department manager. ETYK appealed to the Labour Ministry, saying JCC had violated standard practices by hiring the manager without union permission, and the Ministry upheld the appeal.
However, when JCC demoted the employee to the status of a newly appointed member of staff, ETYK was unhappy and decided to initiate strike action.
The Labour Ministry has dismissed the strike an illegal violation of the Industrial Relations Code, and asked ETYK to lift all strike measures.
“The position of the Ministry is that the employer has fulfilled his obligations, and therefore, the trade union has to stop any industrial action,” said Charalambos Kolokotronis, director of the Industrial Relations Department. “If all trade unions decide to ignore the Ministry’s decisions, the next step is chaos. The whole system of industrial relations is going to collapse.”
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry has also released a statement urging ETYK to respect the Labour Ministry’s decision by ending the strike.
Despite the strike, businesses have continued accepting credit and debit card purchases, wary of being the first to refuse customers during the holiday season.
“We will accept credit cards until we are told not to by the proper authorities,” said one business owner who wished to remain anonymous. “We can’t be the only ones to not accept them, especially at this time of year.”
Cyprus’s credit and debit card spending has been on the rise, particularly during the month of December. In 2001, spending reached almost half a billion pounds, with more than £50 million during December alone. December 2000 and 1999 saw expenditures reach £42 million and £33 million, respectively.
“This strike is creating a huge chaos in the market,” Fekkos said. “I’m doing a number of procedures manually on the authorisation computer every night, just to keep things afloat, but I’m not sure I can continue much longer.”
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.
