.
So, who do we believe – the baggage handlers at Larnaca airport who claim they are being overworked and undermanned or the contracted company, Swissport, that says that mediation talks are underway and the wildcat strikes on Sunday were illegal?
Whatever the outcome, one thing’s for sure – labour disputes at public services will become more frequent for two main reasons: the economic crisis will force employers to downsize their workforce; and, unions have no say in any of these decisions.
Sunday’s walk-out by the airport baggage handlers was a pre-emptive strike staged by the union bosses who fear that job losses are in the pipeline and want to reduce the impact by forcing the hiring of part-timers in order to secure the jobs for their full-time members.
On the other hand, if it turns out to be true that, as with the reasons for similar strikes last year, Swissport did not foresee the potential increase of airport traffic and failed to plan ahead, then the government and the airports operator should reconsider any contractual agreement they may have with the said company, or anybody else.
Surely, some bright thinker at the airport could see when there would be a rise in the number of flights and plan accordingly?
In the old days, placing the occasional arrival or departing flight at odd hours was simply geared to better utilizing the idle government employed staff who had rigid work hours and pay scales. But this was supposed to have changed when the new operator took over and sub-contracted services to third parties, some of whom had been inexcusably unprepared.
Nobody wants to return to the days when the government ran everything and we saw little if anything development at the two airports. Despite its labour rhetoric, this administration, too, ought to be satisfied with the fact that it is earning operating rights (albeit less than it would have wanted) and does not have to concern itself with an additional number of civil servants to satisfy or to ensure work for.
Why, then, did last year’s threats of challenging the operator’s contract eventually subside? If reason prevailed, why are we seeing the repeat of last year’s strikes? Could this all be related to rumours of an upcoming cabinet reshuffle?
