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Marina Nikolova 

The strike of the Hellenic Petroleum’s employees raised the question about their salaries, and the fear that the Greek market would be left without fuel. The company workers went on strike from the 3^rd of April demanding the appointment of new staff for the new units at the refinery in Thessaloniki, claiming that this is for security reasons, and their salaries and benefits to be kept. The strike will take place in the three refineries of the company in Thessaloniki, Aspropyrgos and Elefsina.

The company employees announced data published in the media, according to which their salaries are much higher than those of their colleagues from Germany, Belgium, Holland and Italy, while the company’s productivity is between 30% and 60% lower than that of the refineries in France, Scandinavia, Holland, and Spain. According to the administration of Hellenic Petroleum, the new collective agreement will have to contribute to the improvement of the competitiveness of the company as the entry of new players from third countries increased the competition in the wider geographical area. Meanwhile, according to Naftemboriki, fuel consumption in Greece dropped to rates reaching 20%.
 
"Our employees are paid salaries that exceed those of their German and Dutch colleagues, and they work 15% fewer days per year in a very competitive environment, but this can not continue like this," commented the managing director of EL.PE. Yannis Kostopoulos said to Naftemboriki. The company said in turn that the workers use the security of the new refineries in Thessaloniki as a pretext because of the lack of staff.

The annual salary starts from 33,000 euros and reaches 139,000 euros, while the technical staff salaries start from € 37,900 and reach 104,300 euros, reports Ethnos. The high salaries of the workers are justified because of the high profits of the company, but of the hard working conditions too, and they receive a number of benefits.

The fuel stocks will meet the market demand for 10-12 days, according to the EL.PE. management, which means that there will be possible shortages if the strike continues more days and there is no supply of fuel from Motor Oil, reports Eleftherotypia. There is fear of rising fuel prices since the strike begins at a time when the international market price of oil is at record levels, which resulted in an average of 1.675 euros per liter unleaded gasoline two days ago. On the occasion of the strike, GRreporter asked the Union of Hellenic Petroleum employees to comment on it and here is what the secretary of the union Thomas Kotsias told us:

What are the main demands that made you go on strike?
 
We are on strike because we disagree with our company Hellenic Petroleum in connection with the appointment of workers in the new units of the refinery opened in Thessaloniki and Aspropyrgos. This is a huge plant, a big investment is being made and the refineries are actually twice as large. The project in Thessaloniki ended two years ago and we stated that the designed functioning of the new units does not meet the security requirements. We refer to our very bad experience with tragedies, accidents and fatal accidents. The company has a different opinion, but we stated that we will not allow these new units to start operating. They did not believe us and when the time came to put the units into operation, we said that this will not happen and we started the strike. The opening of the new units of the refinery coincided with the negotiations for the new collective agreement. These days we were falsely accused by the media that we receive high salaries and even "bachelor" bonuses, which is not true. This "cannibalism" led to problems in our families and when our children go to school, the others watch them as children of "thieves". The company presented the new contracts with the revenues cut by about 40%, which will completely change our lives and we do not accept this. To turn the public opinion against us, they submitted false information that we receive a "bachelor" bonus, which does not exist, and talk about super-high salaries of up to 77,000 euros for people with 35 years of service and permanent duties. I submitted my tax return to the television and the document shows that my gross pay does not exceed 55,000 euros. And we are talking about working inside the refinery, which is a heavy industry, and in an environment hazardous to health, a very complicated job that can not be compared to anything else. We are fighting to protect our dignity and the truth. We are determined to continue the strike and the three refineries gradually stop working. The refineries need 4-5 days to stop working and further ten days to begin to operate again. We had a meeting with the managing director of Hellenic Petroleum Ioannis Kostopoulos yesterday which went well but we reached to no agreement. We are hurt of what is happening but we have no other way to defend ourselves.