Filenews 13 October 2022 - by Chrysanthos Manolis
After a long silence, the EAC workers' guilds returned yesterday in a letter to the board of directors, informing them that they will consider with their members, next week, the possibility of strike measures, in reaction to the stagnation observed in the organization and the lack of sufficient staff.
"It is unacceptable", the guilds say, "that queues of consumers accumulate outside the offices of the EAC, that people do not get answers to their applications or that the execution of works related to the immediate service of the citizen is delayed and at the same time, the staff of the Production, Networks and Supply, due to the understaffing of the organization, is exhausted in order to be able to meet their obligations".
The guilds had also complained in June about the delay in approving a supplementary budget for the creation of 390 new posts in the EAC, citing the serious understaffing, which we are told the board of directors fully recognizes. Due to this understaffing, but also due to the increase in the volume of work, due to the great interest in installing photovoltaics, citizens' complaints about inadequate service have recently increased, which to a large extent are justified.
In addition, EAC is criticized for the delay in upgrading and expanding its network, in order to facilitate the connection of more photovoltaic parks, and argues that this requires a significant reinforcement, with staff, of the competent management.
In the June letter of the guilds to the Minister of Finance, Konstantinos Petrides had replied that "your request for the creation of 393 new positions is excessively large, since it leads to an increase in the organization's capacity by 17% and if the existing vacancies are also taken into account (285 of the 2,329 positions included in the EAC budget for 2022), we end up with an increase of 678 people, leading to an increase in operating costs and a further increase in electricity charging prices."
Consultations took place between the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance and the board of directors of the EAC and the information of the "F" states that the government side has reached the approval of 145 positions, which we understand do not satisfy either the board or the guilds. The supplementary budget has not yet been forwarded to the Parliament (although it has been in the hands of the Government for about a year, something that the guilds called a mockery yesterday) and, even if it is approved soon, it will take time-consuming procedures for the EAC to hire staff. Obviously, the suffering of the public will also be prolonged.
Reactions to plant inspection
It should be noted that while the guilds recognize and invoke the inability of EAC, due to understaffing, to adequately serve its customers and associates, they criticize through their letter the Government (Ministry of Transport) for forwarding to the Parliament a bill for "alienating the control of electrical installations from the EAC, a responsibility that it had assigned to it since its establishment. The control of electrical installations", the guilds point out, "is one of the most important services of the organization to the society, is a guarantee and is vital, both for the safety of the staff and facilities of the Authority, as well as for the consumers". The change promoted by the bill aims to involve the private sector in the control of electrical installations of new premises, in order to reduce the service time of property owners. The bill was tabled at the end of September in parliament but its discussion has not yet begun.
POINT OF VIEW
A matter of quantity and quality
It is undeniable that EAC does not have the staff required by its role and activities. At some point, everyone has to evaluate the correctness of older plans for misguided voluntary early retirement, which we paid for, temporarily reduced the number of employees (and celebrated a medium-term financial benefit) and finally it appears that we simply sent to the private sector several very well-trained EAC executives, which unfortunately were not adequately replaced. Especially at the top. Nor did the promotion of younger executives, at the expense of antiquity (which in some cases was synonymous with experience and knowledge) pay off. Scientific knowledge has long since ceased to be transmitted. This is perhaps more serious than understaffing.
