AN uneasy lull has settled in the war between the National Bank of Greece and bank employees union ETYK, though hostilities are set to resume next week.
The bitter row, caused by the recent dismissal of two NBG employees, has pitted the feisty bank against union authority. ETYK has ordered all other commercial banks not to process transactions with NBG, and last Monday staged a three-hour stoppage in solidarity with their sacked colleagues.
The case, which is far from cut and dry, dates back to last summer. The two sacked employees were involved in the crisis that led to the closure of the bank’s IT department. Reportedly at the behest of the union, IT personnel stole the access codes to the computer network, crippling the bank’s operations. Experts were able to retrieve the bank’s entire database in the nick of time.
ETYK now says the two were fired summarily – and illegally – as “payback” for last year’s events. According to the union, before getting the sack the employees in question were demoted and underemployed, presumably to justify their dismissal later on.
The bank insists this is not a trade union matter, and that if the two employees feel wronged they can seek recourse with civil courts.
Union leaders held a meeting yesterday to decide further actions against the bank; an announcement is expected today. The measures will likely take the form of more strikes.
Meanwhile, for all the vitriol between them, the two warring parties have been negotiating backstage in a bid to resolve the dispute amicably. But they’ve been unable to agree on an early retirement compensation package for the two employees. It’s said that the sum the bank is willing to offer is far lower than what ETYK wants.
“It’s not about the money,” union spokesman Mimis Theodotou told the Mail.
“If it was OK to fire people arbitrarily and then just pay them off, it’d be a jungle out there,” he remarked.
Theodotou accused the bank of “blatantly breaking a host of labour regulations” and of trying to “dumb down” the issue by claiming it’s a purely legal matter.
So far, government mediation efforts are going nowhere, with Labour Minister Soteroulla Charalambous unable to bring the two sides to the table.
The Central Bank is for the moment also keeping a low-profile, with a bank source telling the Mail yesterday that they were “concerned with the current situation but proceeding discreetly.”
