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Victoria Mindova

Eleftherotypia, which is one of the largest newspapers in Greece, is threatened with closure. The company X K Tegopoulos Editions SA, which manages the Greek daily newspaper and has over 35 years of history, declared that it has filed for protection under Article 99 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Code stipulates that employees and other interested parties cannot request or seize assets of the company in trouble until a recovery programme is applied and until it gets clear weather the company will continue to exist or will be liquidated. The company reports 25.88 million euro losses before taxes at the end of the fiscal 2010. Sales revenue fell by over 60 million euro or 24% compared with 2009.

Financial data for the first nine months of 2011 show that less or in fact, nothing has been done to save the newspaper from certain death. Losses after taxes to September this year reached 17.4 million euro and sales continued to drop. Revenues from the newspaper distribution fell by 31.27% and reached just 32 million euro.

The company’s total obligations for the nine months of 2011 increased to 84.3 million euro from 75.21 million euro in the same period of 2010.

After the announcement that X K Tegopoulos Editions SA is trying to secure protection under Article 99, the company employees announced a 48-hour strike. We contacted the representative of the newspaper union Panos Sokos to cast some light on the fall of the popular Greek media.

"Eleftherotypia has had deficit for many years. The media was funded through bank loans for a long period of time," said Sokos exclusively for GRReporter. He noted that the management of the company has announced that it will try to bring order into its finances after taking another loan but it was never granted. Due to the negative balances, the company was not considered a credible borrower and the loan was rejected.

The employees' of X K Tegopoulos Editions SA have not received salaries since August this year." We are about 850 employees and this is the fifth month, in which we have not received a salary. Around 250 are journalists, the rest are administrative staff, maintenance staff, workers in the printing office. The management did not inform us when and if it will be able to pay and months are running." Sokos said that workers have started seeking their rights in court still at the outset, when the first salaries were not paid.

"Under the legal protection of Article 99, it is very likely that they will not pay us anything for the recent months and we could remain on the street without even being paid a compensation. If the company decides to apply a recovery plan, those who will remain at work will have to take at least 50-per cent reduction in wages," said the specialist.

The trade unionist did not deny that the number of employees in the various activities of X K Tegopoulos Editions SA is still quite large, especially for a company with financial problems. He said that the management was very liberal and had an open approach to the employees and has provided for hundreds of people for years. However, when the problems began, the management has not taken the necessary spending or staff cuts and the result is evident today.

Panos Sokos himself has been an Eleftherotypia employee for 28 years now. His career coincided with the establishment of the media in recent decades. "The feeling of losing your job, having given the best of yourself in your professional career is one side of the problem. The other is the purely practical financial side, when we are all aware that we remain without work at a mature age and there are no job prospects outside for most of us." He stressed that the strike of the newspaper employees aims at exerting pressure on the management to pay the salaries. Employees believe that if the media is not closed until now, it could find funds to pay the staff. They are determined to continue the protests until a final decision is reached. Panos Sokos expressed the hope that Eleftherotypia will be published in 2012 too.