Airline withdraws redundancy notices after being told it broke Industrial Relations Code
CYPRUS Airways (CY) pilots and cabin crew called of their two-day old strike last night after the airline withdrew redundancy letters to 22 stewards, which the Labour Ministry said were not issued “by the book”.
The 22 were issued letters on Monday prompting the stewards union, SYPKA, and pilots union, PASIPY, to strike. The two unions, which have been opposed to the airline’s rescue package from the outset, accused the company of violating the Industrial Relations Code.
The strike action, which began on Monday, led to the cancellation of 14 flights yesterday, affecting some 2,500 passengers and costing the company hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The airline apologised for the inconvenience to passengers but had managed to relocate most travelers on other airlines such as Olympic, Helios, Aegean and CY’s charter firm Eurocypria.
SYPKA chairman Andreas Koutouroushis said last night the unions had suspended the strike action after it had secured in writing a pledge from the company that the 22 could return to work and that a dialogue would begin. “There will be negotiations but they will be held within the code,” he said.
Koutouroushis said six of the 22 had been willing to accept the redundancy package. However he said the airline’s claim that the laid off staff would be receiving close to £200,000 in redundancy payments was misleading.
“If this was the case we would all accept to be made redundant,” he said.
Speaking after the suspension of the strike action, CY spokesman Tassos Angelis said management would go to negotiations with an “open spirit”.
Early in the day both sides said they would stick to their guns as some 40 stewards picketed the Labour Ministry. CY chairman Constantinos Loizides, speaking to reporters from Athens, said the company needed to go ahead with its rescue package to save the airline, while unions warned that unless the letters were withdrawn the strike would continue.
But following a marathon meeting with management and unions, the Labour Ministry’s mediator Charalambos Kolokotronis said CY’s action had been “irregular” and should be reversed.
The airline should have given the stewards a two-month notice, and any decisions for the layoffs should have been made in consultation with the affected parties, he said.
Kolokotronis said the company’s actions in issuing the letters were irregular “and possibly illegal.” He also said that the unions had not played by the rules either, because decisions for strike action must be taken after a general assembly and a secret voting procedure.
Shortly before 7pm yesterday, Angelis confirmed that management would withdraw the layoffs and a statement from the company called on the unions to terminate their strike action immediately.
Speaking after the meeting Angelis told the Cyprus Mail that both sides had agreed. “Tomorrow we will be operating as usual,” he said. “The letters are being withdrawn and they are going back to work.”
Angelis said both sides would return to discussions at the Labour Ministry to thrash out an agreement on the redundancies.
The Labour Ministry did acknowledge the company’s right to effect redundancies, but added that in this case CY did not follow proper procedure.
The unions were claiming victory last night. Costas Demetriou, chairman of CYNIKA, the airline’s largest union, said the employees had been “vindicated”.
“Now these people can get back to work, where they should be,” he said.
Commenting on the dispute, Demetriou insisted that the 22 stewards worked on the larger aircraft owned by CY, and that there had been no justification for labeling them as redundant in the first place.
In one respect, the Labour Ministry’s ruling proved that CY’s action was arbitrary, as the unions had contended; however, this latest development does not rule out future layoffs and is unlikely to defuse the crisis in the airline.
Angelis said the company had reserved its right to effect redundancies if it considered them necessary.
The unions had been busy lobbying throughout the day, meeting with the DISY leadership, among others. Following the meeting, DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades called on CY’s management to resign.
Anastassiades also pounced on the opportunity to criticise the administration for the poor state of affairs in the national carrier.
“It is yet another example of the bedlam… in government. What we have is a bizarre situation, where a company that is essentially controlled by the government adopts measures with which the ministers disagree.”
“In the meantime, CY’s board of directors does not feel the need to resign, despite breaching fundamental regulations governing trade union affairs,” Anastassiades added.
“At this stage, not only does the so-called ‘strategic plan’ seem unlikely to salvage the company, but on the contrary the company is being driven to disaster through management’s machinations.”
