HOTELS across Cyprus face the threat of strike action following the refusal of the Cyprus Hotel Association (PASYXE) to accept a collective agreement approved by hotel employees.
On Tuesday, Hotel Association members were presented with a proposal drawn up by the Labour Ministry, but rejected it.
Nicos Epistithiou, General Secretary of the SEK Cyprus Hotel Employees Federation told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “Following PASYXE’s rejection of the proposal on Monday, another meeting was held and we examined the situation again. As a federation, we decided that if PASYXE does not review its position then maybe next week we will go on strike and visit each hotel separately to ask them whether or not they will accept the proposal.
“We are not that happy with the Labour Ministry’s proposal because it doesn’t represent all our interests. But bearing in mind the possibility of war with Iraq, we don’t want to put the hotel industry in a worse position than it is already. We’re accepting the proposal as a minimum, in the industry’s best interests.
“We will ask PASYXE to reconsider once again, especially since the Labour Ministry has declared that the proposal is the final one.”
Labour Ministry mediator Marios Avramides confirmed yesterday that the ministry would not be revising its proposal.
“We had a meeting yesterday and we have no intention of changing the proposal in any way. Besides, PASYXE objected to most aspects of our proposal, particularly the proposed increments to salaries and the increase in minimum wage.
“We will have to wait and see what happens,” he added.
Zacharias Ioannides, Director General of the Hotel Association said the issue was to be discussed in a board meeting today.
“Hotel Association directors will be informed about our meeting with the Industrial Relations Department, in which we elaborated on and explained why we find it impossible to accept the Labour Ministry’s proposal. We have called for the Ministry to revise their proposal along the lines of our own suggestions.”
Asked why PASYXE objected so strongly to the proposal, Ioannides said: “We rejected it because it does not incorporate and safeguard the concessions given to hoteliers in the 1998 collective agreement, such as flexible working hours and six-day-week programmes.
“We are not asking for new concessions, just the re-implementation of the old ones. These are concessions which contribute to productivity and competitiveness after all.”
Ioannides said PASYXE was optimistic about the possibility of a settlement of the dispute.
“The Hotel Association always works with an optimistic, constructive and open-minded approach to resolving disputes.”
Ioannides declined to comment on what action the Hotel Association would take if the deadlock continued.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
