Bank employees union calls for work stoppage over CBC debacle

By George Psyllides

Bank workers union ETYK on Wednesday called on Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) employees to hold a one-hour work stoppage on Thursday at 11am to protest the goings on the island’s banking supervisor.

“It is with disappointment, sadness, and concern that we are watching the crisis that broke out for the umpteenth time – with new protagonists — at the Central Bank in recent years,” the union said in a statement. “Witnesses to a sad situation that discredits the institution and causes additional woes to the already troubled banking sector.”

ETYK was referring to allegations of conflict of interest against Governor Chrystalla Georghadji whose estranged husband, a lawyer, represented former Laiki strongman Andreas Vgenopoulos, seen as main culprit for the lender’s downfall.

Parties have called for the governor’s resignation, but she refused. President Nicos Anastasiades, who cannot fire her under, has referred the matter to the attorney-general.

Andreas Georghadhis rejected the allegations but also dropped Vgenopoulos in a bid to settle the issue.

ETYK said it was not its intention to deal with who was responsible for the present crisis but it felt the need to condemn any action that discredited the institutions and deepened the values crisis plaguing Cyprus.

“Instead of safeguarding the Central Bank as the crown of our banking sector, in recent years it became, and still is, the battleground to serve the interests of politicians and others,” the union said.

ETYK suggested that the whole affair also discredited the employees who were trying to carry out the difficult task imposed on them by the condition of the economy.

“We ought to leave the workers undisturbed and afford them every tool to do their difficult work, something, which has not been happening in recent years,” ETYK said.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.