Statement by Telecom Unions of Greece

Immediate Measures To Be Taken By The Bosses And The Government

Regarding the big issues created with the outbreak of Corona-virus and the protection of public health, concerns all workers of the sector of telecommunications and computers. It is an issue that calls for a responsible and collective solution, with the sole option of the protection of the public health. We need to have clarified that, protection, prevention, is a collective solution and not an individual one. It does not start and it does not finish, within the doorstep of our own home, but the capitalists and the state have to take substantial measures and not partial measures concerning aspects of our lives.

So far the government denies taking initiative in any particular that will protect the workers and will insure our income, even if we need to be absent urgently form work for reasons of protection of the public health. The measures that have been announced by the minister of Employment concern the facilitation of the bosses and make no mention neither to ensuring the rights of the workers, nor to special measures of protection that demand special categories of workers (like workers in crowded places, in shops, technicians etc) as well as sensitive groups of our colleagues, with permanent health problems, autoimmune, pregnant etc. At the same time the situation in hospitals and in healthcare in general, in the means of public transportation etc is tragic and have shown once more the nakedness of the system. The government needs to take immediately permanent measures.

In our sector, in OTE (subsidiary of  Deutse Telecoms in Grecce) the next three days they will proceed with disinfection of central buildings, asking from people to work from home, while to everyone that does not have this ability they verbally announce to them that they demand for them to be transferred to other establishments . In Vodafone, they propose to all the working mothers and to all employees to use their own already available and granted normal leave of absence. In Teleperformance, a “measure of protection” has become the taking of the temperature by the security guards at the entrance of the buildings.

The most dangerous incident however took place in Company FORTHNET, where though the management found out about an infected colleague, they did not shut down the offices, but instead they asked the colleagues to move into other buildings and this way to spread the virus and endanger more workers and their families. The Telecom Unions immediately intervened, called the police and demanded to clear the offices as is demanded by the protocols against the spread of the virus.

Telecom workers, we consider necessary the measures that are taken to be the work of a scientific committee, because on the one hand the HR Managers of the companies have no such knowledge and on the other hand the fact that they are used to acting with costs in mind, will not allow them to treat the current situation with entirely different criteria. We are discussing about the health and the lives of thousands of colleagues in our sector that is under the responsibility of the management and the government.

For all of the above reasons we demand:

1. The formation of health committees for each company which representatives of the management, the employees and the responsible health organizations will be a part of. In this way we will ensure that the decisions will be made due to health facts and the needs that occur in the work places.
2. Clarify that the implementation of work-at-home will be only for the time period of dealing with the corona-virus, which cannot be decided by no manager of a department or a project. No consideration of a permanent implementation. Commit now all the boards of companies.
3. No employment with a work-at-home status the entirety of the staff but only the number of employees necessary to ensure providing the benefit of communication to the people. The rest of the workers to receive special leaves with full payment and social security coverage.
4. No to the transferring in other locations of staff that does not have the option of working at home for the days of disinfecting of the workplaces (eg OTE in Ilioupoli). On the one hand this kind of transferring is not acceptable, and on the other hand the workers will be stacked in inappropriate work-places, increasing as a result the danger of spreading the virus.
5. Ensure the extra leaves with full payments for all workers that need to stay at home and take care of children or sick.
6. In workplaces where the workers are within very short distances ( call centers, computers etc) a portion of  employees work at each given time, so as to make sure that the health and safety measures to be kept. To those that are not to work, legislate an extra leave with full payment.
7. Take all necessary precautions for workers that get in touch with customers (technicians, retail) based on the indications of the scientists.
8. The means of cleaning and disinfection for the workplaces should be under specific standards and regulations.