Temp workers to strike in October

IN LIGHT OF the government’s summer dismissal of dozens of temporary workers, the Co-ordinating Committee of Temporary Workers has unanimously decided to stage an indefinite strike in the middle of October

The roughly 2,500 temporary workers are requesting a freeze on dismissals and the beginning of an intensive dialogue to change their terms of employment.

Aiming to secure indefinite employment in the government based on new European laws, the temps have argued that EU harmonisation laws give public and private employees who have worked more than 30 months with a company the right to work indefinitely.

According to yesterday’s Phileleftheros, it is estimated that around 100 temporary employees have been recently dismissed, while it is expected that more workers will be laid off by the end of October due to the creation of another 30 permanent government positions.

The wages of government employees account for 60 per cent of government expenditure.

The government hinted this past spring that it would let workers go as part of its cutbacks and fiscal austerity programme. The Finance Minister characterised the issue of temporary workers as “extremely complex” and cautioned that it should not be “treated in an emotional way”.

It is expected that the strike will affect the operations of a number of departments of public services.

In response to the strike announcement, Government Spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis said that the “position of the government is known” and that a bill dealing with temporary workers is currently pending in the House.

DISY deputy Christos Pourgourides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the temporary workers are seeking a “solution to their professional status”.

“Many of them have been working as temporary workers for 10 years. It’s totally unacceptable that someone should be working for so long and yet the government should be able to dismiss him at will.”

Pourgourides accused the government of “doing nothing” and behaving like a ‘Pontius Pilate’.

“This is a government with expertise in washing their hands on many issues.”

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.