CYPRUS Airways (CY) is hoping to receive the green light from the European Commission for a wage increase for its low-paid employees, despite a pay freeze under the airline’s restructuring plan.
The plan calls for a freeze for a period of five years, or until the ailing national carrier has been profitable for two consecutive years.
It is still operating at a loss, however, and employees are becoming impatient.
The government, which is the majority stakeholder in the airline, must seek permission from the Commission for any wage hike because CY received approval from Brussels for a multi-million loan only on the basis the rescue plan would be strictly applied.
However, the Finance Ministry is now believed to be in consultations with Commission officials to secure an increment for low-paid workers, according to the company. These would include office administrators and clerks.
The move was made at the request of CY’s new chairman Kikis Lazarides.
Observers see the move as a cynical election ploy, but the airline has denied this, according to sources close to the top.
They said the wage hike had been in the pipeline since before summer, and that the reason for the request was to give a little respite to staff, who have been working under the strict terms of the plan for the past two years.
“During the summer, the chairman had many meetings with the unions and recognised that some staff had low salaries,” said the sources. “He thought it only right to correct this.”
CYNIKA, the airline’s biggest union, said yesterday it was pleased with the move. The union’s president Andreas Pierides said they were hopeful the increase would be approved by the EU and given to members of his union across the board. This would cover around 1,000 employees and include cabin staff as well. “Some of the cabin staff are on low pay scales,” Pierides said. He said he could not speak for the pilots.
Pilots’ union PASIPY staged a strike during the summer, not for a one-off incremental pay hike, but for the full reinstatement of their collective agreement, frozen under the plan.
PASIPY spokesman George Charalambous said yesterday the pilots were not included in the proposal to Brussels.
“The whole thing is a joke and it’s because of the elections, despite what they say,” he said.
“They want to please the biggest union CYNIKA to secure votes.”
Charalambous said PASIPY didn’t see how the company could have no money on the one hand, and seek approval for a pay rise on the other.
“They said it was for lower salaried people but what ‘low salary’ means, we don’t know,” Charalambous added. He said it appeared all the company was doing was cutting money from the pilots and giving it to the rest of the staff.
