Filenews 23 December 2022
There is bad news for about 1,000 former bank employees who left relatively recently with voluntary exit plans from the Bank of Cyprus, Hellenic Bank and Alpha Bank, who cannot get unemployment benefit, as was the case in all previous years.
According to information provided by "F", the opinion sent the day before yesterday by the Attorney General of the Republic, George Savvidis, to the Minister of Labor, Kyriakos Kousios, puts an end to any hope that bank employees who left through the latest plans may have this time the privilege, as was done in the past with similar plans implemented.
The opinion is negative, as these employees are not considered unemployed, due to the fact that they left with a voluntary plan, receiving redundancy and additional compensation from their employer.
The reason for breaking the tradition of years - which recognized unemployment for six months to those who left with voluntary exit plans - is a recent court decision. A private sector worker went to court when his claim for unemployment benefit was rejected. He retired on the basis of a voluntary retirement plan, receiving financial compensation from his employer through arrangements made.
According to the court decision, the CTA services were right to reject the employee's request for unemployment benefit. The court decision overturns the facts about what has been informally applied so far in labour relations and it seems that it does not only concern bank employees.
The ETYK has been informed of the content of the opinion and it is now awaited whether the trade union side will request a meeting with the minister or whether it will otherwise take action against the opinion of the Attorney General. As a first reaction, before the opinion, a meeting had been held on 15 December at the offices of the ETYK, with the aim of informing the former bank employees from the leadership of the trade union side about the actions it is taking on the issue, followed by a discussion and exchange of views.
One cannot fail to take into account the fact that part of the success of the voluntary expenditure schemes that have been implemented on a large scale since 2012 has also been the receipt of unemployment benefit, as the employee took this into account in order to calculate what he has to get overall with his departure. The reorganisation of the banking sector has resulted in over 5,000 employees leaving the banks over the past ten years, with plans that had common features for all banks. The maximum amount of ex gratia compensation was €200,000, tax-free, and unemployment benefit from the CTA for six consecutive months. It should also be noted that in several cases bank withdrawals were not exactly voluntary, as there was a clear intention of banks to shrink specific segments.
In addition, from the new year, the issue of taxation of compensation is expected to open in future plans for the voluntary exit of employees, amounting to 20%, which will concern not only the ex gratia compensation of bank employees but also the plans in the public private sector in general.
Kousios: He asked for it and will apply it
The Minister of Labor, Kyriakos Kousios, did not make a statement yesterday about the development. The information, however, states that, provided that the minister himself had asked for the opinion, he has no choice but to accept it and ask the competent service to implement it. The management of the development by the ETYK and the affected persons themselves is awaited with interest. It is obvious that the opinion is more broadly relevant to those who make use of voluntary withdrawal plans.
