ATHENS – An Athens Court of First Instance on Thursday ruled that a 24-hour strike called by the Athens Labour Centre, in which the eight STASY employee unions participated, was illegal and abusive.

STASY’s management had filed a lawsuit against the strike, asking the court to declare it illegal, at noon on Tuesday, September 20, and the case was tried the following day, on Wednesday, on the same day as the strike and of the vote on the legislation that it was protesting against.

According to the court ruling, the strike was deemed illegal due to non-compliance with the conditions for legal strike action, as provided for by the relevant legislation: namely, notification of the demands and their reasons four days before the strike is called, availability of sufficient personnel for a skeleton staff to ensure the safety of company facilities and to prevent disasters and accidents (“Security Personnel”), availability of personnel to deal with basic needs of the society during the strike (“Minimum Guaranteed Service Personnel”), and the obligation to submit an application for conducting a public dialogue by the trade union that is calling the strike.

It was also deemed abusive on the grounds that, on the one hand, it caused a significant financial loss to the company and, on the other hand, it took place on the day of the passing of the relevant bill, even though this had been unveiled for public consultation since August 6, 2022, giving sufficient time for unions to express the views to the management of the company. Instead, the last resort of a strike was selected, accepting its adverse consequences.