Immediate reinstatement of our colleague who was fired maliciously at Spandidos Publications [announcement]

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IMMEDIATE REINSTATEMENT OF OUR COLLEAGUE WHO WAS FIRED MALICIOUSLY AT SPANDIDOS PUBLICATIONS

We denounce the malicious sacking of our colleague Ilias M. from Spandidos Publications. Our colleague, who has been working for almost seven (7) years, has been since the beginning a member of our Union and since the last elections he has been elected vice president, which makes his firing illegal according to Greek labour legislation.

After 7 years of employment the employers have discovered poor productivity but it is absolutely a constructed and poor excuse in order to fire our colleague. Our colleague has always been punctual and committed to his work obligations. Once more, he has abstained from any workplace machinations despite been subject to constant task changing. He has never denied to perform any tasks assigned to him. Among others, writing and/or updating the manuals describing the policies and procedures of the publishing house or managing the building where the main offices of the company are located.

Moreover, those who work or have worked at Spandidos Publications are well aware that there is no consistency or clarity in the evaluations that management does to the personnel. We are talking about a company that has no reason to worry about its financial strength, with 42 employees in Athens and even more in London and with three (3) employers who do not always have the same understanding regarding the tasks of each employee and as a result contradictory guidelines are often set up against each other, whilst employees are individually pressured and reprimanded for not doing what has been asked.

A typical characteristic of management is to change the tasks of the employees with great ease and frequency in addition to an inadequate period of training and adjustment. The insecurity created by this rotation has been aggravated by outsourcing strategies and the rumors of replacing employees with software and also the spectre of performance assessments haunting the majority of employees. By establishing arbitrary, extreme, or even irrational goals of productivity, anyone that falls into disfavour is charged with low productivity without even having a chance to defend oneself. Since December, two more colleagues have been sacked. After working for a few months in positions different from the job descriptions they were supposedly hired for, they were suddenly notified to pack up their things and leave because they did not meet the company’s requirements.

Furthermore, a culture of benefactors and beneficiaries is cultivated so that employees are expected to show devotion, to accept contemptuous behaviour and scornful comments, to comply with deliberate bullying with regards to working, hygiene and safety conditions and work leave. In addition to this, a system of favouratism is in place, depending on the circumstances and the moods of the employers.

Therefore, for us it is clear that Ilias M. was fired because he reacted with dignity to incidents of arbitrary and degrading treatment that go beyond managements rights and because he claimed things such as sick leave to be given as established labour rights allow for and not as benefits– and charity as the employers have said. Ilias M. has also been fired because he participated in the procedures, rallies and strikes of his Workers Union. It is no coincidence that the shacking took place two (2) days after the General Strike of 18/2/2020 regarding pensions and social security reform. The participation in which our colleague insisted on declaring openly whilst insisting that employers attitudes and working conditions can be improved though collective means and not by personal survival tactics or by having the hope that one can avoid finding oneself in the cyclone’s eye.

We would like to make it clear to the employers of Spandidos Publications that as long as they exercise their power in an arbitrary and abusive way, we will respond collectively and we will defend and assert our labour rights.

Every firing is a fight for the whole Union.

Immediate reinstatement of our maliciously sacked colleague Ilias M.

WORKERS UNION IN PUBLICATIONS, BOOKSTORES, PHOTO COPY CENTERS, STATIONERY, DIGITAL DEVICES OF ATTICA (ATHENS – GREECE)

Lontou 6, Exarcheia – Athens |+30-210-3820537 & +306980182255
sylyp_vivliou@yahoo.gr | bookworker.wordpress.com