Cyprus court rules in favour of NBG breakaway union

The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the staff at the National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) starting their own union, SYPETE, an effort challenged since 2007 by the militant Etyk bank employees union.
This could pave the way for other independent unions making their appearance at all the other commercial banks, something that Etyk Secretary General Loizos Hadjicostis has dreaded in recent years.
According to a Sypete announcement, Judge D. Hadjihambis said in his ruling that rejected Etyk’s appeal that based on the Trades Union Law of 1965, as membership of Etyk is not mandatory, then Etyk cannot forcibly hold on to its membership.
The Supreme Court judge added that the right to partnership, including the right to establish a trade union and to enrol membership, is safeguarded by the Cyprus Constitution (Article 21.1) as well as the European Convention (Article 11), adding that even by the restrictions described by Article 21.3, Etyk has no right to hold on to its membership in a monopolistic way.
Hadjihambis added that “the members who withdrew from Etyk and established another union had every right to do so,” and that Etyk had no right to prevent them.
Meanwhile, in a scathing attack on the Etyk leadership, the SYPETE union magazine “Epilogi” (Choice), revealed the methods employed by the Etyk magazine “Trapezikos” (Banker) to undermine the new trade union, while attempts by SYPETE to distribute their magazine to other bank employees were prevented.
In a separate article, former Etyk Secretary General Yiorgos Michaelides said that NBG staff had always been treated more than fairly by the management and that the bank was the first to recognize Etyk in 1962. He added that the present-day Secretary General wanted to establish a separate union limited only to university graduates, something that was rejected by the whole union at the time.