THE DECISION by casual workers at the Road Transport Department employed at the checkpoints to strike yesterday could have escalated into a major political issue, according to the Director of the Department.
While stating that the Road Transport Department had never refused to pay the casual workers their overtime, Sotiris Kolettas claimed they had acted recklessly and could have hung the Republic out to dry.
“Was it necessary to wake up today and without any prior notification to find out from the media that the supervisors at the checkpoints would strike for two hours? I am very sorry to say that such action can only be described as irresponsible, as the whole country could have been exposed for supposedly not wanting to assist Turkish Cypriots crossing over,” he said.
Kolettas confirmed, however, that the two-hour strike that the administrators at the checkpoints undertook yesterday morning did not affect the crossing, because permanent staff were sent to avert a possible crisis.
The row over the amount of overtime to be paid to the casual workers has been ongoing, but reached breaking point yesterday as the Communications Ministry did not respond to a deadline set for last Friday.
The trade unions representing the workers, contracted on an hourly basis, will today meet the Permanent Secretary of the Communications Ministry in an attempt to reach a compromise over the issue.
“The matter came to light last year, ever since a part of the overtime pay for the supervisors of the Road Transport Department was removed after a decision from the Communications Ministry. We held a number of meetings with them and they made a number of promises towards us, which have not been kept,” Giorgos Constandinou, the representative for the workers said yesterday.
“They decided to pay only 70 per cent of the overtime worked. This goes against the workers’ agreement and employees from all other departments that work at the checkpoints get their full overtime payment,” he added.
Kolettas played down the dispute, saying that the procedures for them to get their complete wage package were still being ironed out.
“We are currently in the middle stages of going through with the procedure that was agreed with the Communications Ministry and it is not actually regarding a large amount of money. For the sum of all the workers it is about £2-3,000, however for us to pay this money, all the legal frameworks must be in place, something that does not hold true at the moment,” he said.
The workers have threatened they could strike again, this time causing even greater problems for the Road Transport Department, unless an agreement is found in today’s meeting between trade unions SEK and PEO with the Communications Ministry.
