APPROXIMATELY 400 Port Authority staff at Larnaca and Limassol ended a two-day warning strike at 6am yesterday after protesting against a Ministry of Finance decision to review the Authority’s pension fund agreement.
“This move on the part of the employer constitutes a breach of the collective agreement, and we will thus have to start from the beginning to discuss an issue which we started discussing in 2004,” said Pavlos Tsisios, General Secretary of the Port Authority Navigation Staff trade union (SYPYALK).
Trade unions reacted to a note in the 2009 budget which said the pension fund issue would be reviewed. Given that an agreement had already been reached on the issue, trade unions perceived the note in the budget as a breach of the collective agreement and announced a general staff meeting on Thursday.
At the meeting the trade unions explained the issue to their members, suggesting the possibility of a warning strike. At the meeting, staff members decided to go on a warning strike from 2.30pm on Thursday until 6am yesterday.
PEO trade union, however, disagreed with staging a strike, arguing that taking such a decision at a general meeting violated decision-making rules and the code of industrial relations.
“We will give instructions to our members not to strike. We are, however, in favour of sending a clear message that the pension fund is not negotiable and ask that the processes of creating a pension fund start moving,” said Glafkos Kostandinou, PEO official.
The Federation of Employers and Industrialists (OEB) also criticised the decision to strike, arguing that it violated the code of industrial relations and that it adversely affected the interests of Cypriot Ports at a difficult financial period.
“Considering the serious problems faced by Cypriot Ports as a result of the international financial crisis and being aware of the intense efforts that are made to deal with these problems, we expected the trade unions to show reason and responsibility,” OEB announced yesterday.
“Unfortunately such behaviour aggravates the already bad situation at ports and the entire economy is called to pay the consequences,” it added.
Meanwhile, all trade unions including PEO warned that unless their demand was met, more strikes would ensue. The unions gave a deadline until March 6 when the Port Authority will review the issue with the Ministry of Finance to announce specific timelines for enforcing the agreement. Otherwise, the unions warned, even more dynamic measures would be taken.
“On the 10th of March we will act. The general meeting gave us orders to continue with strike measures if there is no agreement on the timelines for the plan’s enforcement,” Tsisios said.
