THE NATIONAL Bank of Greece in Cyprus announced a lock-out yesterday after bank employees union ETYK has repeatedly refused to end their strike action.
Customers of the bank have been unable to process any transactions for the last week as members of the IT Department have walked off the job and the union has called on all other banks not to accept any transactions from the National Bank of Greece in Cyprus (NBG).
In a statement released yesterday from the bank, they claim that ETYK’s actions have left them no other option but to call a lock-out.
“Based on the current situation that has great risks regarding the well-being of the bank and its customers, the bank has decided to call a lock-out that is taking place from today [yesterday]. We have already informed the relevant authorities and everybody involved of this decision,” yesterday’s statement read.
The NBG based this decision for a lock out on a majority vote criticising the actions of the powerful bank employees union. According to the bank, 180 of their 260 employees voted in opposition to the actions of ETYK.
The bank employees union claimed however that the vote was not valid.
“This meeting to vote was called by the board of the National Bank of Greece in Cyprus, thus forcing all employees to take part. The bank did not allow its employees to vote in secret and the final number that was announced was much less than the number of people that were actually present,” ETYK’s statement said.
“Furthermore, ETYK would like to announce that all meetings organised by the board in the area of the bank cannot be regarded as an official meeting. General meetings are those that are organised by ETYK at its headquarters where employees have the opportunity to speak freely.”
The union held its own vote whether or not their members agreed with the strike action taken against the National Bank of Greece in Cyprus. According to their statement, the results from voting held in Larnaca, Paphos, Limassol and Paralimni were 792 in favour with only 12 people voting against ETYK.
Labour Minister Antonis Vassiliou yesterday said that he did not rule out intervention from his Ministry in a bid to resolve the crisis between the two sides. Vassiliou said that he would be getting in touch with all the relevant authorities before deciding whether he would call both sides for urgent negotiations.
The dispute stems from the employment of four National Bank of Greece employees from the bank’s Athens headquarters.
ETYK claim the employment of these four workers is in breach of a number of existing agreements signed between the union, the Bank Employers’ Association, the Labour Ministry and the bank itself.
Last week the National Bank of Greece in Cyprus announced that they had withdrawn from the bank Employers’ association as a show of protest to their attitude on the issue, while earlier in the week, the bank had warned that if the strike was not called off, it would report the matter to a Cypriot or European court.
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