CY staff have been reluctant to take up a redundancy package offered to help save the ailing airline
MORALE among Cyprus Airways (CY) staff is at an all-time low as employees feel that either accepting or rejecting a forced voluntary redundancy package leaves them with an uncertain future.
Tomorrow CY management expects to have the first indications of how many employees will opt for the scheme, which was borne out of the ailing airline’s need to lay off a huge number of staff under a controversial restructuring plan.
The original plan calls for around 380 compulsory lay offs, some one third of staff, but management is hoping 500 will leave voluntarily, which would allow the company to cut less from the salaries and benefits of those who remain.
The move has put staff in a tricky position. If 500 people are not found, the company will revert to the original plan to lay off 380, plus implement the necessary cuts on those who stay.
Even those with 20 or more years service face a dilemma. Although they will receive a higher lump sum, they say it’s not enough to make them feel financially secure, and if they stay and the company closes they will receive only what’s in their pension fund.
“I feel like I’ve been pushed into a corner,” said one 42-year old woman working in an administrative post, who has been with CY for 21 years.
“I am happy here. I am in a good position and I get quite good money and I want to stay but the thing you are not sure of is if I stay and work and the company does not survive then I don’t get any money,” she said.
“If I get the money now, I will have to get another job because I need one. I’m not among those people that don’t need a job and it’s difficult at my age to find a good job with good money.”
The woman said those who have not been with the company for long, also don’t want to leave because they think it will not be worth their while financially to volunteer for redundancy. She said there would be no incentive for them to voluntarily leave the company and go to the trouble of looking for another job when there is a chance of hanging on to the one they have.
“We have to make a decision that we are not sure is right. Most people don’t know what to do. I want to stay but we get the feeling we are not getting anywhere. They have given us their problem to decide,” she added. “At first they were deciding who was leaving but now they have left it to us and the chairman says we have to decide yesterday.”
A male purser who has been with the airline for 28 years is also in a quandary, he said, because purser posts are among those on the priority target list.
At 50 years old with a son in college and another one due for third-level education in two years time, he said he will likely opt to stay as he feels the redundancy package on offer is not adequate. He said he would be due £30,000 under the package, which for him is around 18 months salary.
“The compensation is peanuts. I saw the scheme for Ethniki Bank. They gave 61 months salary, which is five years compensation. If they gave this in Cyprus Airways everyone would go. Our unions have suggested to the company three years salary as compensation,” he said. “Even three years would be okay but they are trying to give as little as they can. Whatever choice I make I am stuck.”
With ten years to retirement, the purser said it would be virtually impossible for him to find another job at his age. He said that close to half of CY staff were in the same boat, having been with the company 20 years or more.
He said there is also the issue of the working conditions for those who don’t volunteer to leave because the company was trying to change the long-established collective agreements, which leaves remaining staff with an uncertain future as well.
“It’s not an easy decision to make but I think that I won’t volunteer to leave,” he said. “I can’t even think about it. Only if they lay me off. I don’t want that but there is a possibility, especially in our rank in the pursers. Everyone now is trying to save themselves. I’ll stay even if they reduce my salary even though I won’t like it. But it’s better to stay with less salary than not to have an income at all.”
CY vice chairman Frixos Savvides believes there will be a good response to the airline’s redundancy package but he blamed much of the employees’ indecision and agonising on alleged scaremongering by the unions.
“It is a fact that some people have to be made redundant because they should not be there in the first place, and whatever they get is a bonus. People are saying this is not enough because they expect the company or the government to come up with a better scheme and they are sitting back, waiting and complaining because they expect to get more. What we gave them is a very, very good redundancy package.”
Savvides said somebody with 20 years in the company on a higher pay scale could walk away with £35,000-£38,000 in redundancy payments, plus another £20,000-£25,000 from the government redundancy scheme, plus another £50,000-£60,000 from their own provident fund.
“So he will put £110,000 in his pocket and go home. If this is not a lot, I’m sorry,” Savvides told the Sunday Mail.
He said that leaks from the unions were causing staff to ponder if they should hold out for more. This was responsible for all the angst, he said.
“They should stop spreading rumours telling people to wait and that these jerks will give you more. But this doesn’t wash any more. This was made very clear to them on Friday,” he added.
Savvides said most of those being encouraged to leave work in departments not directly involved in flying, such as catering, ground operations and accounts.
“These people, we feel for them, but on the other hand an accountant and a chef are much more likely to find work in Cyprus in catering or industry in general rather than a pilot whose options are limited to seeking work in the Middle East,” said Savvides.
“If the company goes bust no one gets anything so they have to take their chances. It doesn’t matter how they look at this. There is no other way.”
He said the company would use the benefits of offloading 500 people to lessen the impact of cost cutting on those who remain
“My concern now is not for the people that are leaving because I feel they will be compensated enough. My concern is to keep good people committed to work with us and make the company great. My aim is to make these people happier and give them the incentive to work properly without the old way of thinking and doing things.”
