THE danger of strike action by Cyprus Airways’ (CY) biggest union CYNIKA has been averted, at least until next week, following a meeting yesterday to sort out a dispute over outsourcing.
Speaking after the talks between management and union representatives under Labour Ministry mediation, CYNIKA president Andreas Pierides said discussions had gone well and there was “a light at the end of the tunnel”.
Earlier in the week, CYNIKA, fearful of job losses, threatened strike action over CY’s plans to outsource ground handling to Swissport & GAP Vassilopoulos. The national carrier insists no jobs will be lost, while it will enable the airline to carry out the services more cost effectively.
The company says it could save nearly £2 million a year. Around 120 employees are involved.
A four-hour mediation meeting between unions and management on Monday, the fourth so far, again failed to produce results, but yesterday’s talks allowed some hope for progress, Pierides said.
“The Ministry of Labour decided to continue meeting separately with the two sides this week and next week the two sides will meet again,” he said.
Pierides ruled out any industrial action in the meantime. “We will give it some days to see if a solution can be found,” he said. “Today’s meeting was a small step forward and it looks as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
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.
Pierides said the union wanted the CY staffers to continue to work for the national carrier, and are concerned that if they end up working officially for another company, they might lose their jobs at the end of the seven-year contract. The union wants CY to take on the tender alone.
CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said the negotiations with Swissport were conditional on the terms of employment of the CYNIKA members being honoured.
