Employees of the chain of electronic goods shops Electroniki Athinon are left facing an unpleasant choice: either they agree to give their employer a full month’s salary, or face the prospect of unemployment.
As initially reported by the 902.gr newsite, last week the the company called upon all of its employees to sign a statement by which they would agree to donate a quarter of their net salaries of April and July and half of their salaries in December in order to contribute to the ‘economic recovery of the company in the context of discussions with the bank for its recapitalisation’.
While the contribution is theoretically voluntary, for many the email sent to employees amounts to a thinly veiled ultimatum, with those that refuse to sign it facing the prospect of joblessness at a time when the unemployment rate is close to 30%. The clock is also ticking with workers called to agree to the pay cuts by this Wednesday April 16th.
The move by Electroniki Athinon was immediately slammed by the Association of Retail Employees of Athens which called on the company’s employees not to sign the statement which it said “proves in the clearest way that companies are being built literally on the blood and brutal exploitation of workers.” In a statement released on its website (link in Greek) it highlighted similar instances in the past where workers had signed on to such voluntary agreements in the name of ‘rescuing’ their employers only to see the companies close a few months later and find themselves without jobs, severance pay or even access to unemployment benefits.
“Unfortunately we have very bitter experience from the retail sector in similar situations,” the Association writes, “The workers of SPRIDER [clothing] stores had suffered two successive wage cuts to ‘save the company’. SPRIDER shuttered its stores and its workers found themselves from one moment to the next, unemployed, without severance and without even the right to receive unemployment benefits. Workers at NEOSET were unpaid for three months to ‘save the company’, NEOSET shuttered its stores and the workers suffered the same fate as those at SPRIDER.”
The Association lists several more similar examples before adding, “The crisis does not hit employers and employees in the same way. The company ELECTRONIKI may have reduced its profit margins, but in earlier times when it would admit its profits it did not share them with the employees. Do not succumb to fear, despondency, insecurity and the terrorism of management.”
Officials from opposition party SYRIZA similarly criticised the move by Electroniki Athinon and blamed the memorandum policies implemented by the government. Speaking about the move by the company, SYRIZA MP Dimitris Stratoulis who is also responsible for the party’s labour policies said, “The government Samaras – Venizelos and the troika have major political responsibility because with their memorandum policies they have emboldened capitalist forces to make the final attack in order to turn workers into modern day slaves.”
If nothing else, the issue highlights the fact that despite the government’s rosy predictions for an imminent economic comeback, there is little evidence of it in the real economy. Electroniki Athinon, like many others in the retail sector has seen sales plummet as many consumers simply cannot afford new electronic goods.
According to newmoney.gr, in the first have of the 2013 – 2014 fiscal year sales continued their downward trend, dropping by 16.41% compared to the previous year to 43 million euros. The company had losses of 4.9 million euros after taxes with a total of obligations of 82.6 million euros by the end of 2013. Furthermore the chain which has 571 workers in 54 branches is reported to have taken an additional tax ‘hit’ at the end of 2013, after an audit for the period 2007 – 2010 added another 3.7 million euros to the company’s tax bill (which the retailer is now appealing).
In short even if employees of the company agree to contribute a months wages in order to bail-out their employer, it will probably do little than delay the inevitable if the Greek economy continues to implode.