AROUND 700 off duty police officers will today march on the Presidential Palace in an effort to have their demands taken seriously.
The Cyprus Police Association (CPA) called the protest after what they see as years of their demands being ignored by successive governments.
“It is a last resort and nothing personal against President Tassos Papadopoulos,” CPA Secretary-general Pantelis Komodromos told the Cyprus Mail.
He said the officers, wearing plain clothes and from all ranks, would meet at the Finance Ministry at 10.30am and from there walk to the Presidential Palace.
The presence of European Council of Police Unions (CESP) president Branco Prah, Secretary General G?rard Greneron, and Deputy General Secretary Efstathios Mitropoulos is expected to give weight to the demonstration.
Officers flying in from Romania, Malta, Greece, France and Slovenia are also expected to take part.
Komodromos said: “Our demand is that the employer’s side [government] agrees to lay down a specific timeframe to sit down to negotiations.”
He said the police officers had three main demands.
The first is to harmonise police working hours with those of the civil service.
“We want our actual hours reduced from 40 hours a week as they are today to 37.5 hours a week,” he said.
Komodromos said this meant the total hours worked and did not include shift work.
“In our line of work we work 24 hours a day. We mean the actual working hours per week, including shift work,” he said.
The problem dates back to 1993, when police working hours were reduced from 42 to 40 hours, with the intention of reducing them to 37.5 hours no later than 1995. Since then, the issue has remained unresolved, he said.
Komodromos said police in 17 other European countries worked between 37 and 40 hour weeks. He also said the working hours of civil servants and police were the same in most European countries.
Although the ministries of Justice and Finance had agreed last summer to assess the situation and to prepare a study alongside police regarding the costs of harmonisation of police hours with those of the civil service by September, the matter is still pending.
The second issue regards the introduction of a ‘responsibility’ allowance for station commanders, key holders and department heads, Komodromos said.
As things currently stand, constables got paid more than station masters because they enjoyed shift and holiday allowances, he said.
“With a lot less hours and a lot less responsibilities they get paid more money.”
This was because station masters worked office hours and were exempt from shift work and holidays, he said.
“However, based on their responsibilities they are effectively on call 24 hours a day and often have to return to the station two or three times after their shift is over because an incident requires their presence. They can be called in at 5pm, then again at 10pm and at 3am, and are expected back at work for their shift at 7.30am,” he said.
Komodromos said the police were asking that colleagues in this position were given some sort of symbolic payment.
The third bone of contention between police and the government is that of special constables.
“At present there are about 750 special constables. By law they have to retire at 55. The problem is they don’t receive a pension until they are 63 so for eight years they have no income and no medical coverage,” he said.
Knowing that the government could not start paying special constables their pensions sooner, he said: “We are asking that the government address this issue humanely and that they be given a lump sum of £45,000 (€76,887) to tide them over until they get their pension.”
