By Martin Hellicar
IT WAS a good day for worker relations at the island’s ports yesterday.
At Limassol port, agreement was finally reached for renewal of employees’ collective agreements and implementation of a shift system.
At Larnaca, a £840,000 compensation package was ironed out for 54 workers to be laid off in a cost-cutting exercise.
Unions, the Ports Authority and the government expressed hopes the agreements would bring both industrial peace and prosperity to the ailing ports.
Over the last months, both ports have repeatedly been hit by strike action over the issues resolved yesterday.
The ports have suffered from competition from other cheaper, more efficient, harbours in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Communications Minister Leontios Ierodiaconou presided over final talks at Limassol port yesterday.
“Today is a significant day for Limassol port,” he said afterwards. “After three or four years of talks we have at last arrived at an agreement on collective agreements and on a text covering conditions and procedures for implementation of a shift system,” Ierodiaconou added.
He said the shift system would increase efficiency at the port, making it more competitive.
The shift system agreement gives existing staff the option of joining it or not.
Late last month, strike action over the shift system proposal prompted Ierodiaconou to hit out at port workers, saying they were “over-privileged” and objected to all change.
Both the collective agreement and the shift system deal will be signed tomorrow.
At a morning meeting between unions and the Ports Authority in Larnaca yesterday, a protracted disagreement about compensation for 54 workers facing redundancy was finally resolved.
The axed workers are to receive a total of £840,000. Most of this — £700, 000 — will be paid by the state and the rest will come from a loan that unions will secure from the association of Shipping Agents with a government guarantee.
Unions had originally balked at a state suggestion that the port workers not facing the chop pay part of the compensation costs for their sacked colleagues.
The departing workers, who represent half of the port staff, will receive their pay-off in three months’ time.
Larnaca port has had virtually no traffic in the past year.
