The Director General of GDDIA (General Directorate of Defence Investments & Armaments) Mr. Dimitris Georghiopoulos, along with one of this Directorate’s Staff Officer, met with delegates of the trade union “TRIENA” of the Hellenic Shipyards S.A. (HSY), following their request, after a decision made by the HSY concerning one (1) day shiftwork per week for their personnel and notified them of the content of the Minister’s of National Defence Mr. Dimitris Avramopoulos briefing at the meeting of the Governmental Council on Foreign Policy and National Defence on April 26 2012, as well as his (DG/GDDIA) written response to the CEO and Chairman of the HSY Mr. Hankach Boulos, after their meeting in GDDIA on April 24 2012.
Moreover, he also repeated to them the following:
a. The Ministry’s of National Defence determination concerning the re-initiation of works for the construction of submarines as fast as possible, committing at the same time for the deposit of the Programmes’ payments, of course with the respective guarantees from HSY, after the approval of the Committee on Armament Programmes, as well as the arrangement of the remaining payments, by the deposit of yearly instalments of equal -if possible- amount, that will be dependent on the development of the submarine construction until their completion, according to the new updated project’s and payments’ timetable that will be agreed upon.
b. The establishment, at the highest possible level, of the procedure concerning the final settlement of the issue with EU, as well as of all issues relating to the shipyards.
c. The request to the Administration of HSY, in order for the negotiation with the appointed Hellenic Public Sector Commission, to complete the agreement, according to the aforementioned, immediately after the elections of May 6th 2012 and the formation of the new Hellenic Government.
d. The invitation to the HSY to show the corresponding bona fide and immediately suspend the personnel’s work rotation.
Despite the aforementioned, it was called to the delegation’s attention that the Administration of the HSY kept an inflexible position and hasn’t, until currently, lifted its decision concerning the personnel’s work rotation.
Finally, the union’s delegation was informed that the Minister of National Defence intends to mutually investigate with the Minister of Finance ways to temporarily cover the wages of the people employed in HSY by the available instalments amounts of the Contract for the Programme “Archimedes”, so long as an agreement between the Ministry of National Defence and HSY will not occur, that will be protecting public funds, labour and social peace of the shipyards, as well as the country’s national needs in matters pertaining to defence and protection of territorial integrity and national sovereignty.
