CYPRUS Airways (CY) two main unions were yesterday gearing up for today’s face-off with the airline’s management on the thorny issue of redundancies, slated to come into force on Monday when two aircraft will be withdrawn from the fleet.
Pilots’ union PASIPY, 14 of whose members are on a list of 135 positions to be axed, said yesterday it planned to submit proposals at the Labour Ministry meeting, which it has already given to the airline.
CY is attempting to thrash out an agreement with the unions on an action plan to save the ailing carrier, but has run into trouble on the issue of redundancies.
“We have so far given the company five different scenarios that could have been followed before redundancies were announced,” PASIPY chairman Efthymios Liasis told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“They have ignored us and now we hope that with the mediation of the ministry they will look into it and we believe once they look into it something can be done.”
Liasis warned that if the company attempted to bypass labour procedures on the redundancy it would be flirting with disaster.
“We cannot as a matter of principle accept redundancies and we are trying our best to avoid them because we believe there are better ways of solving the company’s problems before resorting to redundancies,” said Liasis.
“If they don’t agree with us and they insist in going to redundancies then they have to follow a set of rules laid down, something they want to avoid. If they don’t want to follow these rules I believe they are opening themselves up to a lot of trouble.”
Liasis said the company’s thinking that the withdrawal of two Airbus A320s warranted a corresponding drop in the number of staff was flawed.
“We all know that every year on November 1 the winter schedule starts and there is a reduction in work. This happens every year. They amount of work per pilot is reduced and this year is no different,” Liasis said.
He said normally at this time of the year aircraft were grounded, but that this had never led to redundancies in the past. During the winter season, he said, pilots take their annual leave and re-training programmes as flight capacity is reduced.
The aircraft, he said, are sent to the Airbus plant in France for checks and maintenance for a month at a time. “This year they (management) have elected to say that it is different. It is not different and it shouldn’t affect anybody in any different way than any other year,” Liasis said.
“The number of planes we need for the winter period is always less than the planes we need for summer.”
CYNIKA, the union for cabin staff, said yesterday they would be pursuing the possibility of a voluntary redundancy scheme with the company
“We are waiting to see how many people show an interest in a redundancy scheme to see how we will proceed,” said CYNIKA chairman Costas Demetriou.
“If it is true that it is necessary to reduce staff as a result of the reduction in flights, there is not much we can say or do but we consider it very important that the numbers the company is quoting for redundancies is accurate and correct.”
CY chairman Constantinos Loizides said on Wednesday there was a strong probability of strike action at the airline as the crucial deadline to axe jobs approached.
