AN EMPLOYEE of the National Bank of Greece in Cyprus yesterday called on bank union ETYK to put an end to their strike, as it had left the staff “devastated beyond belief”.
The worker, who wished to remain unnamed, told the Cyprus Mail that all were now worried for their jobs.
“These are our jobs, we are so saddened and concerned at what is going on here, something needs to happen,” she said.
Talking of the ten-day strike that has paralysed the operation of the bank in Cyprus, the employee said that they were all praying for a positive outcome.
“You cannot understand what this is doing to us. It is not just me, everyone here is hoping for this to stop. The worse thing is that we cannot do anything because ETYK have basically taken the other banks with them,” she added.
Members of the IT Department walked off the job nearly two weeks ago, while the union also called on all other banks not to accept any transactions from the National Bank of Greece in Cyprus.
The row stems from the employment of four National Bank of Greece employees from the bank’s Athens headquarters, something that ETYK claims is illegal.
Members of the bank and ETYK met representatives from the Labour Ministry on Monday, but according to both sides, they are no closer to a solution.
“During the meeting, we reiterated our position that the employment of these workers is in breach of the collective agreement signed between ourselves, the bank, the Bank Employers’ Association and the Ministry,” said Prodromos Charalambous, ETYK General Organisation Manager. “The bank is not changing its stance either, so as things stand at the moment, we are not going to make any concessions, our position is clear.”
ETYK also criticised the bank for being two-faced.
“If you passed by the National Bank Central Offices this morning you could see that they were people working there, they were helping out some customers. Even though they called a lock-out, they are being selective over the people they chose to help,” Charalambous added.
NBG called a lock-out last week as a counter strike measure, while both sides are in disagreement as to who will pay the employees salaries.
Responding to these suggestions from Charalambous, National Bank General Manager Michalis Kokkinos told ETYK to “look at their own business”, adding that they were out of line making such claims.
“We are helping some people who need to take their salaries out of the bank in order to survive, simple as that. They should stop looking at their own interests and look at the human side of the matter. What would happen if a hospital was on strike, would they tell you that we cannot treat someone that is dying because there is a strike?” he told the Mail.
Kokkinos said that the strike was disastrous for the bank, but could not even estimate how much it was costing.
“We do not know yet how many customers we have lost, how many have gone to other banks and how many will decide against joining us in the future when we do re-open because they are worried about something like this happening again. But definitely this is catastrophic for the bank, we just do not have any official figures at how much it is costing us,” he said.
The General Manager confirmed that they did have a conversation with officials from the Labour Ministry yesterday as well, but the outlook on a solution was looking bleak.
“The prospects are not looking good for an agreement at the moment but we are not sitting down doing nothing. Action will be taken but at the moment I cannot comment on exactly what we will be doing. One thing is for sure though, we will be looking into all possible legal measures against ETYK, because we truly believe that they are in the wrong,” he added.
