THE NATIONAL Bank of Greece yesterday got an extension until Tuesday to reply to a mediation effort in its ongoing feud with bankers union ETYK, but the omens for agreement were not good.
The dispute concerns the seconding of two employees from the bank’s Greece headquarters to its Cyprus operations.
The union says the bank should have consulted before hiring the two employees, according to collective agreements in force in the banking sector. It worries that local staff may be passed over if people are brought in from abroad.
NBG’s management insists it has the right to hire anyone for any amount of time, needing permission only from the Labour Ministry. The bank has also cited the EU acquis on the free movement of labour.
On May 2 ETYK ordered a strike at the bank’s IT department. Management at the bank responded with a lockout of all employees.
The crisis was temporarily lifted last Monday, when the bank re-opened for business after getting its computer system back online.
But the one-month standoff has created a lot of bad blood between NBG and the union. During the lockout, at least three bank employees were expelled from the union for alleged “anti-trade union activities.”
During the lockout, the vast majority of employees had sided with management, in defiance of their union. Some of them have gone their own way, setting up a breakaway union.
Now, the Labour Ministry’s mediation looks unlikely to bring results. The bank insists that the issue is purely legal, and wants the appointment of an independent expert. For its part, ETYK says it is a labour dispute.
With the situation in limbo, both sides have continued trading barbs in public and behind the scenes, in spite of Labour Minister Antonis Vassiliou’s plea to “refrain from actions that might increase tensions.”
ETYK has secured the backing of the major trade unions on the island, including SEK, PEO, DEOK and the blanket civil servants union PASYDY.
And yesterday, ETYK warned of “further measures” against NBG if the bank persisted in its “persecution” of the six IT employees who had gone on strike.
There was talk of organising a general lockout of all the other banks next week.
The six have since been sent on “extended leave”, and on their return will be transferred to another department in the bank.
Andreas Koutsoumbas, who heads the bank’s breakaway union SYPETE, told the Mail yesterday that ETYK was still trying to intimidate employees using a variety of methods.
“For example, the other day a group of about ETYK delegates were seen hanging in and around the bank, supposedly on a briefing mission. I think it was more a show of force, as if to say ‘we’re still here’.
“These threats of measures by ETYK smack of desperate moves,” added Koutsoumbas.
