Airline withdraws redundancy notices after being told it broke Industrial Relations Code

CYPRUS Airways (CY) pilots and cabin crew called of their two-day old strike last night after the airline withdrew redundancy letters to 22 stewards, which the Labour Ministry said were not issued “by the book”.

THE 22 senior cabin crew that were given redundancy notices by Cyprus Airways earned on average £35,500 a year for working an average of only 12 hours a week, the airline said yesterday adding that they cost the company £880,000 per annum.

CYPRUS Airways (CY) incurred unprecedented pre-tax losses of £36.9 million in 2004 compared to £29 million in 2003, the company has announced.

CYPRUS IS now top for the number of applications per capita for asylum seekers coming to the industrialised world, according to the United Nations, despite the overall number falling by a fifth in 2004 to its lowest level in 16 years.

GREENS party leader George Perdikis has called for a nationwide referendum to decide whether the SBA (Sovereign British Bases) should stay or go.

An outspoken opponent of the bases’ presence on Cypriot soil, Perdikis believes that the result of such a referendum would be overwhelmingly in favour of the SBA’s closure. That in turn would put considerable pressure on the British.

THE ISRAELI embassy said yesterday it was looking into surprise reports that the government had axed Israeli charter firm Arkia Airlines flights to Larnaca.

The news came to light following the publication of an article in an Israeli newspaper that the Civil Aviation Department had cancelled all of Arkia’s flights to Cyprus.

HELLENIC Copper Mines Ltd, in which the Church holds a large stake, faces a massive lawsuit by disgruntled employees who claim they are owed some £100,000 in back salaries.

HOTELIERS from the island’s two main organisations yesterday said the island remained uncompetitive and expensive as a tourist destination, releasing figures that showed an average occupancy in 2004 of only 52 per cent.

VETERINARY services yesterday discovered traces of antibiotics and antibacterial agents in fresh goat’s milk, following random checks at a number of dairy factories in the Paphos district.

The milk was delivered to and processed by the following dairy factories: Eleftheria Londou in Kato Polemidhia, Londos in Ipsonas, Andreas Gerolemaios in Ipsonas and Elisavet Antoniou in Pachna.

RESIDENTS of Pissouri village in the Limassol district were left dry for three days after the village was left without water following a fault at a nearby plant.

The inconvenience remained even with the return of the water with some residents reporting that after the problem was supposedly fixed, water running out of their taps was sandy and sludgy.