New bid to solve deadlock at Cyprus Airways

CYPRUS Airways (CY) unions said yesterday they planned to put a new proposal to the company in an attempt to resolve the ongoing dispute over the airline’s plans for a joint venture to handle ground services at the island’s airports.

The ongoing dispute led to strike threats during the pre-Christmas holiday period but the potentially devastating industrial action was averted at the last minute by the Labour Minister, who made a new compromise proposal.

However, the two unions representing staff, CYNIKA and SIDIKEK-PEO, rejected the proposal on Monday, voting 84 against to 14 in favour. Some 130 ground handling employees would be affected by CY’s venture with Swissport.

“The unions have rejected the proposal,” said CYNIKA chief Andreas Pierides yesterday. “The members want to remain as Cyprus Airways employees.”

The staff fear that if they are no longer considered CY employees, they will lose the benefits they enjoy working for the state carrier.

Pierides said that after lengthy meetings yesterday they had decided to put forward a proposal that would involve their services being sold to Swissport rather than staff becoming full-time employees of the joint venture.

He said, however, that more discussion was needed between the two unions to finalise the proposal. “We need to sit down and explain this solution to the Minister,” he said.

Pierides said there were no plans for strike action on the horizon.

The national carrier insists no benefits will be lost in the move, while it will enable the airline to carry out the services more cost effectively and could save the company nearly £2 million a year.

Under the proposed joint venture, CY would hold over 25 per cent of shares, giving it a strong input in decision-making, should they win the contract being tendered by airport operator Hermes, which has pledged to open ground handling services to competition by next April.

At the moment, CY only performs about 20-25 per cent of the total work they hope to be doing with Swissport, assuming the venture wins one of the two licences being offered by Hermes.

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.