Workers at the Anytime by Interamerican insurance company in Nicosia continued their strike for the 20th consecutive day today over the firm’s alleged decision to dismiss employees for participating in industrial actions.
The strike started on March 9, after an employee – who was a Pasey-Peo steward within Anytime – was fired.
The strikers, Peo and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Cyprus say that the employee was fired without warning, in the midst of negotiations for a collective agreement.
Yesterday, Peo met with representatives of the company after the Department of Labour Relations was asked to meditate on the case.
According to sources, at the meeting Anytime argued in favour of dismissing all the striking workers and has already sent formal notice letters to some.
“Management repeatedly refused to come to the Department for consultation, and when it finally did it flatly refused to discuss withdrawing the dismissal. Instead, in the week starting 20/3, it made a series of moves in an attempt to break the strike, moves that went so far as to send individual letters to the strikers clearly demanding their immediate return to their duties,” Peo has said.
Meanwhile, the industrial action has garnered support from organised groups in Cyprus and abroad.
On Tuesday, the All-Workers Militant Front (Pame) issued an announcement urging people in Greece to join its protest outside Interamerican’s Athens office on Wednesday, March 29, at 4 pm.
“Anytime employees in Greece are facing the same issues as the strikers in Cyprus. The behaviour of Anytime in Cyprus is not an isolated case. In the private insurance sector, flexible forms of work, getting rid of employees with rights, ‘voluntary’ dismissals, work intensification and unpaid overtime for remote labourers are preconditions for increasing their (companies’) profitability,” Pame said.
The strike action has also received support from IWW UK.
The workers said they will continue the strike until the company withdraws its decision and returns to the negotiating table to discuss a collective agreement for all its employees.
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Insurance company workers on indefinite strike over dismissal of colleague