CYPRUS Airways (CY) pilots last night said they would not rule out strike action if the Labour Minister’s mediation failed to save the jobs of 12 pilots due to be made redundant on November 1.
After a six-hour meeting, Efthymios Liasis, chairman of the pilots union PASIPY told the Cyprus Mail last night that they have called in Labour Minister Christos Taliadoros to mediate.
“We are not ruling out strike action. The law requires us ot start from the ministry. We are hoping it will be solved there. Otherwise we cannot rule out anything,” Liasis said.
“We have asked the company to reinstate things as they were and to come and discuss the whole matter with us. They have never done so and we want a solution acceptable to both sides.”
As part of a controversial plan to save the airline, CY is withdrawing two of its Airbus A320s from service as of November 1. The fleet reduction, plus route-cutting will impact on the jobs of a total 135 staff, including 14 pilots.
Hundreds more redundancies from all CY departments could follow under the plan.
Two of the 14 pilots have already found work elsewhere but PASIPY wants the remaining 12 to remain in their jobs.
CY management has offered to put the 12 pilots on unpaid leave for three years with a view to rehiring them – as and when needs arise – but Liasis said this was totally unacceptable.
He said this was a ploy by management to have access to a pool of seasonal pilots who would be out of work six months of the year. In addition he said the pilots would not be able to take up other jobs while being technically employed by CY, plus they could not claim unemployment benefit, he added.
“They will be out of work without any money,” he said. “This proposal gives the company the right to introduce the seasonal pilots’ scheme which is completely out of the question because it means that every October just before the start of the winter schedule they will come and tell half of us to go home because they don’t need us until next April. This is what they are trying to do.”
Liasis said the real reason less aircraft and pilots were needed was because much of their work was being given over to CY’s lower-cost charter subsidiary Eurocypria.
“We want our work back. This is unacceptable,” Liasis said.
He said when the company refused to compromise on the Eurocypria situation, PASIPY proposed other alternatives to save money.
“We gave them a set of proposals that would save them £2.5 million a year,” he said. “Firing these 14 pilots now will save the company £340,000 a year. They have rejected our proposals because they want to fire these pilots.”
CY announced losses of £30 million for the first six months of 2004 and prospects for the rest of the year are bleak.
