AGAINST BOSSES’ IMMUNITY - ANDREAS KOURIS, YOU SHALL ALWAYS FIND US IN YOUR WAY!

During the last two years, we have been waging a hard, tiring and relentless struggle to take the money, wages and compensations, owed to us by big-shot entrepreneur Andreas Kouris, owner of MAD Entertainment group and former owner of the once-mighty Metropolis chain of music stores, which he took over and destroyed within three years, laying off 180 workers and closing down 13 stores. 

During all this time, we have had to cope with the inhuman, arrogant and, most importantly, provocative attitude of our former employer, who takes for granted that he can do business and get richer and richer to the detriment of his employees, in the most vulgar way imaginable: by leaving unpaid all those laid-off workers that he sent to unemployment, and by exploiting his debts towards them in order to expand his business activities. 

In these two years, we have realized that Andreas Kouris is able to act the way he does because he feels sure about himself and believes that the system has his back. This is the reason why he has never accepted to meet us, he did not get unnerved by the fines imposed to him by the Labour Inspection Office, he outrageously ignored the three-party meeting in which had been called by then-Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Labour, and he has never set foot in any of the trials against him, some times without even sending an attorney to the courts, although he continues to get one conviction after another. 

Solidarity for our struggle at Malme in Sweden outside of the Eurovision Song Contest

Protest action with dozens of participants is currently taking place outside of the stadium where the Eurovision contest is taking place in Malme, Sweden, in solidarity with the workers fired from Metropolis Music stores. The protesters have raised a banner in English with the phrase "Greece in Eurovision - Courtesy of the unpaid, laid-off workers of A. Kouris' Metropolis Music stores".

 In addition, the protestors circulated fliers with the following statements: “Behind the lights, behind the awards unpaid workers, poverty and unemployment”, “Andreas Kouris, don’t forget: YOU OWE US”,” Andreas Kouris, from Athens to Malmö, WE WILL ALWAYS BE IN YOUR WAY”, Andreas Kouris’ doings in the “Metropolis” Stores:  13 stores closed, 180 layoffs, unpaid workers all around…”, “Employers’ impunity in Greece: IT’S FREE!”, “Hunger wages in Greece turn workers into slaves”, “In Greece, the European champion in unemployment, employers cast unpaid workers out in the cold”.

The text is being followed that it was distributed by the solidarity protestors:

 GREECE IN EUROVISION

COURTESY OF: THE UNPAID, LAID-OFF WORKERS

OF A. KOURIS’ "METROPOLIS" MUSIC STORES

 Three and a half years ago, Andreas Kouris, a young Greek “successful entrepreneur”, owner of MAD TV music channel and of a group of companies around it with activities in Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus, took over the “Metropolis” chain of music stores, which at the time had a share of over 50% in the music retail business in Greece.  

BEHIND THE LIGHTS, BEHIND THE AWARDS, UNPAID EMPLOYEES, POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Over the last year, entrepreneur Andreas Kouris claims that he has no money to pay the salaries and compensations he owes to the employees he laid off from his Metropolis Stores; well, as the owner of MAD Media Group, he sure seems to have enough to organize extravagant and expensive events such as the Greek Eurovision Song Contest.

The latest manoeuvre by Andreas Kouris, the organization of another fiesta (this time, the Greek Eurovision Song Contest), no less one that was directly assigned to him by the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), begets many questions and offends the world.

First of all, it offends us, the employees laid off from Andreas Kouris’ Metropolis Stores, as we happen to have a firsthand knowledge of our former employer. As a “successful businessman”, Andreas Kouris, ever since he purchased the Metropolis Stores 3 years ago, has managed to close 13 stores, to put the whole enterprise under Article 99 of the Greek Bankruptcy Code and to lay off 180 employees. To this day, he refuses to pay accrued wages and compensations to nearly half of his former employees; the total amount owed to us is over €600,000.