THE AIR traffic controllers (ATC) went ahead with another four-hour strike yesterday, causing the disruption of 36 flights, despite rumours the government is ready to table a bill today clipping the wings of striking controllers.
Yesterday’s strike affected around 4,500 people and 36 flights to and from both airports of Cyprus. It was the second this month, while another two have been scheduled for next Monday and Thursday.
According to Adamos Aspris, spokesman for airports’ operator Hermes, almost all cancelled flights were due to be rescheduled by the end of the day.
The disrupted flights concerned 18 arrivals and 18 departures, 22 in Larnaca and the remaining 14 in Paphos, said Aspris, noting that the destinations affected included Athens, Luton, Vienna, Abu Dabi, London, Moscow, Rhodes and Heraclion.
Asked to estimate the cost of the strike action, Aspris said: “There is a cost but the biggest damage is suffered by Cyprus as a tourist destination and certainly this is something that should concern us all.”
The ATCs are striking over austerity measures introduced last December including a two-year freeze on pay and pension contributions, which they want to be excluded from. They have already held a number of strikes.
Reports were doing the rounds yesterday in local daily Politis and by state broadcaster Trito that Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzos had prepared a bill to declare the ATCs job an “essential service”, prohibiting their right to strike, which would be tabled before parliament today.
According to the reports, Flourentzos has the support of cabinet and the majority of parties following a series of meetings in the last week to build consensus.
Politis reported that the government’s argument will be that as an island, Cyprus cannot afford to have its only means of connection to the outside world, air travel, be disrupted so easily.
It is believed the bill will be tabled as a matter of urgency, getting the dust over from the House Communications Committee before being sent to the floor for approval.
Asked to comment, the minister remained tight-lipped, repeating instead the government’s demand for the ATCs to sit down and discuss conditions for minimum employment at the control towers during times of dispute.
He argued that instead of continuing the dialogue on this issue first, the ATC union is seeking to change the agenda and start discussions on the pay dispute first.
Further probed on whether government and parliament are in agreement on the next steps to take, he said: “I believe there is to a very large extent consensus on the way we should handle this situation. I hope that the state machinery in its entirety will set the framework in which we can come out of the crisis.”
Flourentzos expressed hope that the issue could be resolved before the next strike scheduled for Monday.
ATC representative Georgios Georgiou argued that the ministry was putting “unacceptable” preconditions on dialogue, taking the dispute to a deadlock.
He confirmed reports that some controllers were earning up to €8,000 to €9,000 a month.
“There are colleagues who sometimes get €8,000 and €9,000 working 300 hours in overtime so the airport and control tower and civil aviation department can continue to operate. Now that we’re abstaining from overtime, the minister says abstention is a strike measure.
“Can abstaining from overtime be considered a strike? Or when you do go, they accuse you of collecting a lot of money? These things are contradictory,” said Georgiou.
He added: “The minister received an opinion from the labour relations department that abstention from overtime employment is considered a strike… This has not happened anywhere else in the world unless it happened in some African country, where overtime is supposedly obligatory.”
On the proposed bill, Georgiou questioned whether the government had the right to unilaterally remove the constitutionally protected right to strike which is also enshrined in EU law.
