ATA: Confused Unions and Employers about Nikos position

The PEO knows something, the SEC knows something else and the Employers know something else – They are waiting for the Minister of Labor to clarify

Yiannis Panagiotou, yesterday (1/3) took over the portfolio of the Ministry of Labour, taking on the hot issues that threaten labor peace.

One of them is the ATA, for which a general strike has already taken place.and no one can rule out the possibility of new mobilizations. The issue is called upon to be resolved by the new Minister of Labour, Yiannis Panagiotou, who under the instructions of Nikos Christodoulidis, should bring the social partners to the discussion table again and while at the same time the position is of decisive importance of the new President of the Republic.

Mr. Panagiotou's task becomes even more difficult since Nikos Christodoulidis did not have a clear position on the issue of ATA (at least as it appears from the parties involved) and therefore will not be able – at first sight – to manage the issue, since there are no guidelines from the President of the Republic. contacted the PEO and SEK Unions, as well as the OEB, in order to clarify whether the 3 of the most important social partners had heard pre-election the same position from Nikos Christodoulidis on the issue of ATA.

It is surprising to find that PEO interprets the positions of Nikos Christodoulidis differently, SEK differently and OEB differently. The former considers that there is no specific position from Nikos Christodoulidis, SEK believes that will restore ATA to 100% and OEB interprets the position of the new President that the cost of operations for ATA will remain at 50%.

More specifically, the CEO of PEO Ms. Sotiroula Charalambous told Brief that the pre-election position of Nikos Christodoulidis was not clear, noting that they heard different positions and do not know which one is ultimately valid. Ms. Charalambous reminded that PEO's position is that the regulation of ATA should be done within the framework of the agreement which provides – as he notes – for its restoration to 100%.

For his part, General Secretary of the SEC, Andreas Matsas– and since it was the Syntechnia that supported the candidacy of Nikos Christodoulidis – he reported to Brief that the President had told them before the election that the ATA would gradually be restored to 100%.

The employers, however, heard a different position, as the DG of the OEB, Michalis Antoniou, called by the Brief to transfer the position of the new President as it was said to the OEB, referred us to a specific video with the answer of the then candidate and current president of the Republic after a relevant question raised by the President of the OEBin a debate before businessmen of the three main candidates.

Specifically, as well as you will see in the video below, Nikos Christodoulidis, answering the question, said that “within the context of the dialogue with the social partners, I believe that at some point, especially if the difficult current state of affairs continues, we should touch on this issue in relation to fairer distribution. In what sense? Without increasing the total amount, but we can say that some whose salary is up to an amount, for discussion purposes let's say it is €2,000, over €2,000 will not get 50% ATA, but get 30% and those who are under €2,000 get a higher ATA, without, I repeat clearly, the employer being burdened more. The amount of 50% that exists today should not be overturned under any circumstances”.