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Victoria Mindova

Angry employees, unpaid wages, blocked roads, besieged departmental buildings – this is not unusual in the cities of Greece, mainly in the capital and especially in the last two years due to the deepening economic crisis. However, it is highly unusual for this to be seen in the tourist areas of the country, like Chalkidiki, where there was a serious drama during the past two weeks between the management of the tourist complex of Porto Carras and its staff. First, there were talks about protests of those employed in tourism. They announced a few days long labour strike demanding be paid their wages for September, October and November. Then came the word of employers in an open press release that made it clear that the protests were not entirely peaceful. There was an attempt to sabotage the poker tournament, which takes place at one of the hotels, golf-courses were partially destroyed and there was other workers' discontent with the problem situation. Finally, it all grew into an exchange of complaints and police intervention.

GRReporter sought the opinion of both parties in the conflict. The Executive Director of the resort Vassilis Vassilakis clarified the reasons for the financial problems of the company. Like the saying "fish begins to stink at the head," the reason in this case is the bankrupt state, which is dragging with it the private sector and the real victims are real business and ordinary people.

The problem lies in the fact that the state owes Porto Carras € 6.5 million in unreturned VAT and other duties as a result, and to the holding company, which owns the complex Olimpiaki Techniques Plc, the state owes another € 40 million for the last three years. Vassilakis explained that everything hadstarted with the outbreak of the debt crisis in Greece last year, when the state suspended payments to the private sector to cover other gaps in the budget. "As you can understand, Porto Carras is not controlled by one person and it is a part of a large group of enterprises managed by the joint-stock company Olimpiaki Techniques, to which the state owes tens of millions out of government contracts, which have not been paid in recent years. The Greek state owes Porto Carras € 6.5 million in VAT and other receivables alone." In addition to these debts to the company Porto Carras, there are other receivables from other private partners and the total amount of the revenue payable to the company reaches € 13 million. "I understand the anger of workers who have not received their money, but we are in a difficult situation too," said Vassilakis.

Behind the barricade are the employees, who are also experiencing the economic crisis on their backs due to higher income taxation for individuals, new high extra property taxes, on revenue, higher excise duties and inflated prices of basic commodities and products. "Many of the seasonal workers have not received their last salary for September. Permanent employees of the complex received their salaries for September, but not for October and November," said for GRReporter the representative of the trade union of the employees in Porto Carras, Dimitris Livadiotis. He explained that the total number of sufferers is about 700 people, about 300 of which are permanent employees and the others are employed in the active months of the summer season.

Currently, there is a dialogue between the management of the hotel complex and the staff in order to find a happy medium, so that employees receive their salaries and the normal functioning of the tourist site resumes. "We are on the right track and we hope to solve the problem," explained Livadiotis on behalf of workers. Vassilis Vassilakis from the management of Porto Carras said he would like to persuade employees to go back to work for Christmas and New Year, so that the management could pay at least half of the amounts due. Employees, in turn, want to be paid all wages due if they go back to work during the holidays. Both parties seem ready to compromise and the problem is expected to be solved by the end of the week. Unfortunately, hundreds of Greek companies are in a similar situation as they have to balance between the lack of liquidity in the country and keeping their business despite the crisis. Some resort to layoffs, others cut wages 10% -20% to avoid staff dismissal, and a third group are not able to stand the pressure and declare bankruptcy.

Porto Carras is one of the most popular tourist resorts on the Chalkidiki peninsula. It is on the Sithonia "leg" and provides seasonal employment to around 1,000 people in the neighbourhood. Vassilis Vassilakis said that the summer season of 2011 saw far fewer Greek tourists than in previous years. However, the number of sales had not fallen because the number of guests from Russia, the former Russian Republics and Balkan countries increases each season. This difference has not reflected the negative trend in revenue, because in order to attract new tourists from the Eastern Bloc, Porto Carras has had to offer more competitive prices compared to other destinations. For 2012, the management of the complex hopes to preserve and increase the flow of foreign tourists by offering three different hotel units, a casino, a private beach, an opportunity for anchoring yachts and other amenities and attractions.