Type
Internal restructuring
Country
Cyprus
Region
Kypros / Kibris; Kypros / Kibris; Kypros / Kibris
Location of affected unit(s)
Larnaca
Sector
Transportation / Storage
Land, Water And Air Transportation
Air Transport
51 - Air transport

43 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
1 November 2022
Employment effect (start)
9 November 2022
Foreseen end date
9 November 2022

Description

Swissport Cyprus Cargo, which oparates at Larnaca and Paphos airports in Cyprus and is the largest provider of aircraft, passenger and cargo ground handling services (employing 420 permanent employees in the winter season in addition to a significant number of temporary employees during the summer season), has sent letters of redundancy to 45 of its employees at the airport of Larnaca. Swissport (as with the second relevant services' provider LGS Handling) has seen its business reduced following the liberalization of the relevant licenses in early spring and the establishment of a third company, Skyserve, in early October 2022.

This move by Swissport happened despite assurances by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works that there will be no redundancies and that there will be full employment for the staff in the new company, and contrary to the March government degree which liberated the licenses for the related services, which included a provision that when a volume of work is moved from one company to another the staff will also be moved. Skyserve annouced that it is at full employment with far less employees that were previously working on the contracts it took over from Swissport (and LGS, and as such for the past few weeks Swissport has been reducing the wages of its employees, before finally announcing the redundancies.

With the announcement of the redundancies, all employees Swissport and LGS at the airport of Larnaca went on a two-hour strike, as did their coworkers in Paphos airport the following day (02/11/2022). Negotiations commenced on the 2 November 2022 at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, which as of yet are inconclusive regarding the Swissport employees; the Ministry gave assurances that by the 9th of November the matter will be resolved, and until then all employees are working normaly.

LGS Handling resutructuring case has been recorded in the ERM during 2022 (LG Holdings-2022-CY).


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2022), Swissport Cyprus Cargo, Internal restructuring in Cyprus, factsheet number 107671, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107671.