Filenews 29 May 2022 - by TheanoThiopoulou
The confrontations between banking administrations and the ETYK are not a current phenomenon and are not solely due to the digital revolution, which is weakening jobs. They date back a long time.
The causes of the controversies are almost recurrent. The benefits, increases and surcharges claimed by thousands of bank employees and the management of requests by bank administrations. The crises that labour relations in the banking sector went through were enough, and there was even at times a direct intervention by the Presidents of the Republic to end the strikes and bring about a workers' peace. However, there have also been long periods of calm, as a result of the resolution of differences in a spirit of cooperation between the two sides, namely the employers' side and the trade union side.
KEST has closed... but nothing has changed
Until March 2016, the Cyprus Employers' Association of Banks operated and almost all banks were members. Under the auspices of KEST, the employers' association, the collective agreements were negotiated with the ETYK. The Cyprus Employers' Association of Banks counted 50 years of life and closed after a joint decision of four Cypriot banks. The decision was taken after a meeting held by Alpha Bank, CDB Bank, USB Bank and Piraeus Bank Cyprus in 2015. This decision was co-sponsored by the fact that the previous withdrawal from the Cyprus Employers' Association of Banks of the Bank of Cyprus, Hellenic Bank, The Cooperative, as well as JCC contributed to this decision.
The reason why the decision was taken to terminate the KEST was the choice of each institution to delete its own path in labour issues and collective agreements. The banks decided to operate independently and autonomously for the signing of a collective agreement with ETYK and its employees, considering that they could achieve better terms through autonomous negotiations. In the end, however, as the results so far show, the content of the contracts is almost the same, with minimal differences from bank to bank. Also, KEST, the association that had exclusive competence for labour, according to its statutes, was lost.
The Association of Commercial Banks has the banks as its members, but it does not have the authority to deal with labour issues, based on its articles of association, and for this reason it avoids issuing announcements when employment problems arise, as for example during the crisis in Hellenic Bank and which, fortunately, was referred to a dialogue within the framework of the Ministry of Labour, after the suspension of the strike measures by the ETYK and the bank's commitment to dialogue on all issues.
From forty waves the relationships
If one looks back in time, the differences between the ETYK and the bank managements were sometimes serious and sometimes relatively manageable. In the last 20 years there have been periods when relations between banking administrations and ETYK have reached extremes. It is worth noting that in 2008, for the second time after 1960, the two sides, ETYK and the Cyprus Employers' Association of Banks, reached an agreement, without the need for intervention by the mediation service of the Ministry of Labour. The first time was in August 2005, when the guild received relatively low annual increases of 0.7%, in addition to the ATA and the annual surcharges, amid the acute problems faced by banks.
The Irishman put water in his wine
Each bank had its own history with the ETYK. ETYK's relations with the Bank of Cyprus, at the time when Andreas Iliadis was managing director, went through several phases but in the end there was a compromise and the balances were maintained.
In the post-2013 era, ETYK's relations with Irish banker John Hourican, who had become CEO, were not at their best. During his tenure, Mr. Hourican had put to the ETYK a proposal for a new system of evaluation of employees, managers and employees, on the basis of five pillars and a change in the way wage increases are determined. The trade union side had then invoked the provisions of the collective agreement and the discussion on this system was never concluded. In fact, none of the suggestions of Mr. Hourican, who went to shake up banking jobs, were accepted. Announcements on both sides, with strong spikes, were almost a daily occurrence. In the end, the tone dropped, Mr. Hourican got along with the ETYK, and the collective agreements remained without making the changes that the bank official was originally promoting. The relations of the current Managing Director of the Bank of Cyprus, Panicos Nikolaou, with the ETYK are at a fairly good level, with both sides keeping a low profile.
Open accounts in Hellenic
The differences between Hellenic Bank and ETYK are not something current, they date back to the old days and are transferred from each leadership to the next. The change in the shareholding composition of Hellenic after 2013, threatened to bring reversals even in the workplace. In 2015, the labour crisis in Hellenic Bank escalated, with the adoption of dynamic measures, as the guild in a circular called on its members in Hellenic to a two-hour work stoppage.
Then there was a labour dispute in 2017, with the main theme being the creation of a red loan management company. In 2015, the bank's chief executive officer, Dutch banker Bert Pijls, tried to push through changes to the remuneration model but failed to do so.
The tenure of Ioannis Matsis, as the supreme director of The Hellenic, was intensely confrontational with the ETYK. Mr. Matsis' relations with the banking guild were at an end for a significant time, as the former considered that the model of industrial relations that operated in the bank could not be in line with the requirements of the banking environment, especially after the events of 2013. The management considered that the system of horizontal and automatic wage increases is anachronistic and disproportionately increases labour costs in relation to productivity.
The positions of Mr. Matsis were the reason for the manifestation, in two cases, of dynamic mobilizations by the bank's staff, with the result that the relations between The Hellenic Republic and the ETYK were seriously disturbed.
The issue of the labour relations of the Hellenic with the trade union still remains open. Recently, the German current Chief Executive Officer Oliver Gatzke stressed the need to abolish automatic horizontal increases, reduce the number of staff and have a holistic solution for all outstanding issues, on the basis of a new collective agreement. Although it initially appeared that the strikes would be the pattern of the next period, the mediation of the president of DISY, Averoff Neophytou, led the two sides to a decision to start a dialogue under the Deputy Minister of Labour, with the trade union side suspending the strike announced for Tuesday and the bank's management assuring for a frank dialogue on all issues, without pre-requisites for redundancies without additional compensation.
Major strikes in the banking sector
The "F" records in this text the largest mobilizations that took place in the banking sector, according to the information provided by the ETYK on its website.
- The beginning was made in 1961, when the first major strike of ETYK occurred in the Ottoman Bank, which lasted 48 days, caused strikes of support from all bank employees of Cyprus and ended with the intervention of the President of the Republic Archbishop Makarios.
- The second major strike of ETYK takes place in 1972, when for the first time demands were discussed with the Cyprus Employers' Association of Banks (KEST). The stalemate of the negotiations led to a strike, which lasted 42 days and led again to the intervention of the President of the Republic and the conclusion of a full agreement with the centre. That agreement is still called "the basic agreement of 1972", since it formed the basis on which all subsequent collective agreements have been based.
- In a short time after the invasion, the economy begins to recover and ETYK throws its weight behind the improvement of working conditions and benefits of bank employees. In 1977, the first post-war contract was signed, which provides for wage increases of 14%. In the next collective agreement between ETYK and KEST (Cyprus Employers' Association of Banks), in 1979, the first step is taken for the equal pay of men and women, with the adoption of common pay scales.
- 1987 was marked by a new major conflict between ETYK and banks, on the occasion of the renewal of the collective agreement. The negotiation is leading to a new impasse and a new wave of strikes and lockouts has been rocking Cyprus for months. The leadership of ETYK remains firm in its positions and the government, for the first time in the annals of the Republic of Cyprus, wanting to curb the militant mood of bank employees, declares conscription to the striking employees / members of the ETYK. New strikes and a protest march to the Presidential Palace follow. With his personal intervention, the then President of the Republic, Spyros Kyprianou, submitted a proposal for the settlement of the dispute, which was accepted.
