By Martin Hellicar
THE BIGGEST Cyprus Airways (CA) union, Synyka, yesterday claimed the airline’s new strategic plan was “designed” to put staff on the breadline.
Synyka chief Costas Demetriou said the government, and not the national carrier’s employees, should bear the financial brunt of the effort to put the airline on the road to solvency.
“What we want is what governments in other countries do for their national carriers to be done by our government too,” Demetriou told a press conference.
He described the plan – presented to the union by CA management on Monday – as “strangulating and unworkable”, saying it relied exclusively on pay cuts to achieve cost reductions. Plans to slash pilots’ and stewards’ pay by 10 per cent, freeze other wages and stop overtime would lead to “primitive working conditions”. These cuts would total £6.8 million for 1998, £16 million for 1999 and £20 million for the year 2000, Demetriou said.
The government should inject cash into the debt-ridden airline rather than just guarantee its loans, Demetriou said. And he refuted suggestions that CA employees enjoyed fatter wage packets than other workers in similar posts elsewhere.
To make up for the wage cuts, the plan provides for six per cent of a future CA share issue to be made available to employees at a reduced rate, but Demetriou said this was no compensation.
“The government will make money on the share offer – as shares will be sold to the private sector as well – on the back of workers,” he claimed.
The union man also slammed CA for hiring a foreign consultant to produce the strategic plan. “Foreign experts always produce plans that are not applicable to the political and social realities in Cyprus,” he said, adding that there were plenty of Cypriots qualified to do the job. He also claimed that unions had not been consulted while the plan was being drawn up and that the plan had cost £300,000 to produce, £140,000 more than official CA estimates.
The strategic plan, championed by CA as the best way to tackle the national carrier’s multi-million-pound debt, has been more warmly received by CA pilots union Pasipy. But Pasipy did say they had not seen any cost-cutting proposals yet.
The unions are due to have another meeting with management to discuss the plan on December 2.
