BANK employees union ETYK may have to answer charges that it caused unfair competition in the market following its order to commercial banks not to process transactions with the National Bank of Greece.
Last week the union urged employees not to cash any cheques issued by NBG and freeze all wire transfers relating to that bank.
It was the latest manoeuvre by ETYK in its ongoing standoff with NBG over the seconding of two employees from the bank’s Athens headquarters to its Cyprus branch.
The dispute had resulted in a one-month lockout called by NBG’s management, after employees at the bank’s IT department went on strike, reportedly at the behest of the union.
In a suspected act of sabotage, the IT staff had taken with them the access codes to the computer network, crippling the bank’s operations.
But the powerful union has since come under fire for its aggressive tactics.
Yesterday the association of bank owners sided with NBG, instructing employees to carry out business as usual.
ETYK was also blasted by the Employers and Industrialists Federation OEV, which said the union’s latest actions were irregular and illegal.
OEV threatened to “react with all the means at our disposal to protect NBG as well as the thousands of businesses, since ultimately it is businesses who are on the receiving end of these measures by ETYK.”
More importantly, NBG has the backing of the Central Bank, which has jurisdiction over cheque clearing.
The Central Bank has said it is duty-bound to ensure the smooth operation of the sector.
Yesterday, the competition watchdog weighed in.
The CPC warned that unless ETYK lifted its measures, it would launch an ex-officio probe into possible distortion of competition in the banking sector.
Reports yesterday said that banks had more or less obeyed the union’s decree of sanctions against NBG; however, a strange phenomenon was observed, in that certain branches processed transactions with NBG while others refused to do so.
“From what I hear, there was a little bit of confusion,” said NBG general manager Michalis Kokkinos.
“It looks as if these measures against us have come to nothing. We don’t know what else is coming,” he told the Mail.
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