Filenews 26 May 2023 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The leaders of SIDIKEK PEO described the situation at EAC in dark colours during yesterday's Pancyprian Congress of the Trade Union, which was focused on the Electricity Authority. The general secretary of SIDIKEK PEO, Nikos Gregoriou, and the secretary of the EAC branch, Dimitris Constantinou, warned in high tones that the problems that exist at EAC pose a great risk to the safety of staff and equipment, undermine the assurance of electricity adequacy for 2023 and even more so for 2024 and do not allow the organization to serve citizens properly and on time.
During yesterday's conference, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou apologized to the citizens on behalf of the state for its negligence in supporting EAC with staff and other means to lead the effort to push down electricity prices (in another column below what the minister said).
The secretary of SIDIKEK EAC, D. Constantinou, said that the organization is currently going through the most difficult turning point in its history. Mr. Grigoriou added the following worryingly: "In recent months, our visits to the workplaces have enabled us to see once again that the serious problems of safety, health and understaffing still remain unresolved and we are seriously concerned about the lack of structured dialogue between management and trade unions."
At another point in his speech, Mr. Grigoriou said: "Especially on the issue of staffing stations, EAC needs to hurry. Electricity supply adequacy issues are affected. But also safety and health issues. We have seen it ourselves during a tour we did in Dhekelia and Vasilikos, with our branch, last autumn. The two stations cover approximately 70% of the energy needs of Cyprus and safety gaps cannot be created, mainly due to irregular maintenance of production machines, resulting of course from the lack of the necessary personnel." with whatever risks they entail to make mistakes."
And he warned that immediate measures must be taken to rule out any possibility of an accident at work or extensive damage to machinery." He informed the delegates that the director of the Department of Labour Inspection was informed of these risks by letter and in person, who pledged to inform in early June about the results of the investigation he is conducting.
For his part, D. Constantinou acknowledged that the ongoing understaffing causes huge problems of safety and health of staff and safety of facilities, but "also leads EAC to decline and renders it ineffective and unable to meet its needs and the role that society expects from it".
Labour dispute
The General Secretary of SIDIKEK PEO, Nikos Gregoriou, announced yesterday that the EAC branch will urgently raise some important issues before the management and management of EAC, demanding that their discussion begin immediately and that they be resolved. Otherwise, Mr. Gregoriou said, "within July 2023 we will proceed to a labour dispute and take the necessary measures."
Mr. Grigoriou said that the issues that will be asked to be discussed are:
- To define the staffing requirements for the operation of the Dhekelia station and to submit a relevant supplementary budget.
- Initiate a discussion on the de-grouping of first appointment and promotion posts and the correction of those service plans that lead to distortions.
- To resolve the issue of placing workers in a different position from the one recruited.
- Regulation of chronic distortions for different categories of workers.
For his part, the secretary of the sectoral SIDIKEK PEO argued that the delay for years in the arrival of natural gas, in addition to leading to very high prices due to pollutants, etc., led to a breaking point in adequacy in 2023 and to a very serious adequacy problem for 2024 and beyond.
Change the market model
In the presence of the Minister of Energy and the President of CERA, the Secretary of SIDIKEK EAC D. Constantinou asked for immediate actions to be taken to diversify the competitive market model that will be applied in Cyprus and adapt it to the needs and data of the country. We cannot, he said, continue to behave as if we were a big country and try to introduce models that the big countries have adopted and that are not necessarily successful. According to him, it was a terrible mistake not to take advantage of the possibility of exemption from the acquis and to apply the EU Target Model to a small and isolated electricity system, such as the Cyprus problem.
