A SERIES of tit-for-tat demands by Cyprus Airways (CY) and Eurocypria pilots could plunge the national carrier into a new crisis, unions warned yesterday.
Both Eurocypria-SEK and CY pilots’ union PASIPY said they would react if the company gave in to the other’s demands for more captain promotions.
The trouble began when, in order to avert a strike by Eurocypria pilots, Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas proposed they be given two captain promotions as a gesture of good will, separate from existing and contentious agreements. Each union has a separate deal with the company that the other does not accept.
The Eurocypria collective agreement says captain vacancies should go to co-pilots with three years’ experience in the charter firm, while PASIPY reached a deal for double the number of promotions to go to CY pilots. Eurocypria says this violates their agreement.
Moushiouttas’ interim compromise, which was accepted by Eurocypria, also included a proposal for compensation to those co-pilots who would lose out on promotion due to captain vacancies being given to CY pilots transferred to the charter firm.
However, PASIPY has now told the company that if two Eurocypria co-pilots are promoted, they expect four more captainships in the charter firm for CY members, plus compensation for the CY co-pilots who have lost out on promotions because of Eurocypria.
“What we are saying it not really new,” a PASIPY spokesman told the Cyprus Mail. “If Mr Moushiouttas promotes two co-pilots in Eurocypria, then they have to promote four of us. The agreement is that, for every one of them who is promoted, two of us will be promoted, and the company knows that.”
The spokesman said PASIPY had given a lot of concessions last year to reach this agreement with the company, and he said the new deal had been reached between the Minister, the company and the Eurocypria pilots.
He also warned that if the compensation deal went ahead it would lead to a large number of claims for similar treatment from CY co-pilots. “They (CY) have to think about this before they do anything. If they go ahead, we will be mad and tell them to keep the agreement. If they don’t, then there will be a problem,” the spokesman said.
Sources in Eurocypria-SEK said yesterday there was “no way” they would accept the PASIPY demands. “The Minister made his proposal because CY violated the agreement they had with us on promotions,” the source said. “The deal was only a way to keep us quiet as a compensation for the violation of our collective agreement. There is no way we will accept any more pilots from Cyprus Airways.”
CY officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
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.
