ANGRY employees of state airline Eurocypria yesterday tried to storm the Finance Ministry building in Nicosia resulting in a brief standoff with police.
Chanting “Stavrakis, resign here and now,” and “No more buts, we want work now,” the demonstrators gathered outside the ministry’s headquarters demanding they see Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis.
A group of demonstrators tried to rush inside the building but were thwarted by police deployed at the entrance.
The some Eurocypria 300 employees hold the Finance Minister personally responsible for the winding down of the company, and say promises were broken.
They claim that during two meetings with airline union reps last month, Stavrakis had assured them no one would lose their job.
Employees have been knocking on many doors; yesterday union reps met with the Archbishop and Marios Garoyian, leader of the DIKO party, both of whom promised to help.
Andreas Kalos, head of the Eurocypria pilots union said they were still in the dark about the government’s ultimate intentions for the company.
“We expect the President himself to intervene,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
Yesterday’s demo was part of an ‘indefinite strike’ by Eurocypria staff, even though the airline officially shuts down on November 13. Last weekend employees staged a sit-down at the Larnaca airport roundabout.
The European Commission said late last week the airline could not be merged with, or be absorbed by the national carrier Cyprus Airways (CY), and that Eurocypria staff could only be compensated after liquidation. The commission banned the government from assuming Eurocypria’s obligations, before or after the liquidation.
The EC’s verdict has pushed the government into coming clean on the fate of the airline, after months of speculation and talk of a possible ‘merger’ with CY.
“I demand to get my job back, right here, right now. This is what we want and we shall get it,” Eurocypria captain Pambos Demetriades told reporters.
“Up until now our reaction has been soft,” he warned.
The workers also want the government to announce without delay a redundancy package for them as well as a voluntary retirement plan for CY that would – they hope at least – allow for some Eurocypria employees to be drafted into the national carrier.
The government has promised to announce the two separate packages this week.
“However utopian it may sound, all the people demand that we get back to work,” Demetriades said.
“What has really happened over the past few days is that Eurocypria’s operations are being transferred to Cyprus Airways. We all know that as of now Cyprus Airways is carrying out Eurocypria’s flight schedule.”
Demetriades further alleged there are plans in the pipeline to upgrade CY to fill in the vacuum left by Eurocypria’s demise. He said a prior decision to sell two aircraft in the CY fleet has now been cancelled, and moreover the state carrier has placed an order for two additional Airbus jets to be delivered sometime in the next few months.
“Therefore, in the summer of 2011 CY will operate four aircraft more than they did in the summer of 2010. A coincidence? Surely not. This is how the turnover of Eurocypria is being deviously transferred to CY,” Demetriades said.
Flight attendant Ioannis Modestou said he and his colleagues were not asking for handouts, only the right to work.
“We are government employees, for God’s sake,” he remarked. “They never even told us we are being fired. We know nothing about what’s going on. We’ve been on the streets for five days now, and not a single person has come out to talk to us.”
Since last Wednesday CY has been covering Eurocypria flights. The airline has been restructuring its flights to cater to tourists stranded on the island after Eurocypria stopped flying. Today for example a CY Airbus 330 to Frankfurt will be packed with 300 passengers, among them a number of tourists who had booked a flight to Cyprus with Eurocypria.
CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said the airline’s Human Resources Department is currently ‘working on’ a plan for voluntary retirement, but was swift to add that any scheme would need the nod from the European Commission.
Kyriacou said CY is considering stepping in to ‘claim part of’ Eurocypria’s operations, which would require expanding the state carrier. And he confirmed the airline has cancelled a decision to sell off two of its Airbus aircraft.
“But any growth in the company, for example extra hiring, would be done on free market terms and based on merit,” Kyriacou said, adding that it was clear the European Commission would never allow Eurocypria staff to be simply absorbed into CY.
Informed sources in the industry told the Cyprus Mail, however, that most likely redundant Eurocypria personnel would be given preference in any new hiring by CY.
