CYPRUS Airways (CY) chairman Lazaros Savvides yesterday asked pilots to call off their strike today, warning that if the airline’s rescue package was not implemented smoothly it would lead to closure of the company.
The airline’s board and pilots union PASIPY have clashed on terms of the plan relating to pay cuts. PASIPY is accusing management of reneging on a deal to slash pilots’ salaries by only 15 per cent instead of the 25 per cent for the remainder of employees.
PASIPY chairman Polis Economou said the extra ten per cent in cuts from pilots was to be made up from their provident funds and other benefits to bring them in line with the overall 25 per cent in savings.
However he said management has instead cut the 25 per cent from their wages and is also keeping the ten per cent in savings from their benefits. He said it results in a 40 per cent pay cut for them.
Economou also said there were additional plans to make the pilots work longer hours.
“They are turning the jobs of pilots into slavery,” he told the Cyprus Mail, adding that such a move would endanger safety, something pilots would not tolerate.
The pilots will strike for four hours this afternoon but the airline has managed to accommodate all passengers to other flights or leased different aircraft to carry out those affected.
But CY chairman pleaded again with the pilots yesterday to call off the action, while denying that the pilots had been cheated but more importantly he said that the airline could not sustain the effects of non-implementation of the rescue package.
”What is certain is if that the plan’s implementation will not proceed it would affect the company’s entire personnel, and subsequently the company’s functionality, and the company’s economic situation will have to be reassessed and as a result we will reach what we were talking about last year, the final closure of the company,” Savvides warned.
Savvides said the restructuring plan could not be renegotiated at this stage because it would upset the balance of the blueprint. He said CY pilots were already paid 37 per cent more on average than their European counterparts.
He revealed figures that show that senior co-pilots earn around £4,000 a month, while senior captains earn around £6,000 a month. The chief pilot who was earning over £8,000 a month before the cuts would now be earning close to £7,000 a month.
Economou said the figures released by the company were misleading and that the union would be revealing the content of their actual payslips during a news conference on Friday.
“The assertions by the pilots are totally unfounded,” Savvides said. He said the company had made concessions to the pilots’ union amounting to £300,000.
”A possible alteration to the plan, as PASYPI insists, will affect the balance in relation with other employees and will endanger its implementation and will further worsen the effort made by the government and the company for the approval of the governmental loan guarantee by the European Commission,” Savvides added.
CY needs to secure approval for a £58 million loan to carry out the plan, which also involves 385 redundancies.
Savvides said smooth labour relations were necessary to ensure the plan was a success. He said it was clear that the financial contribution of the pilots in the effort to save the company was neither excessive nor unfair. He said it corresponded with the concessions made by the remainder of employees.
“The measures by the pilots are a blow to the company and the interests of their colleagues and against the whole of Cyprus. We call on them, instead of going against the company’s salvation, to join forces with us, the administration, the board, the unions and the personnel to save the company,” Savvides said, adding that this prerequisites calling off the strike.”
Economou said the pilots have left open a window for negotiations. “We have a plan,” said Economou who said they had discussed the issue with SEK and PEO.
TODAY’S STRIKE
Four flights have been affected by today’s pilots strike from 4pm to 8pm but all passengers have been accommodated, CY said. The biggest delay will affect some 180 passengers on the 5.30pm flight to Heathrow, which will not leave until nearly ten hours later at 3.55am. CY spokesman Tassos Angelis said this was because there was no landing slot available at London before that time.
The Athens flight that was due to go out at 4pm is being carried out on time by a Eurocypria plane and the 8pm to Athens will go out at 9.15pm, with a Hellas Jet plane. Only for the 5.30pm to Thessalonica have passengers been allocated to flights with other airlines.
CY chairman Lazaros Savvides said the strike would not cost the company a huge amount in damages. The airline said it had done all it could to minimise inconvenience to passengers.
