Municipalities strike averted at eleventh hour

NICOSIA district municipality workers’ unions yesterday called off their 24-hour strike at the eleventh hour.

The strike, scheduled for today, would have involved around 1,000 workers – including rubbish collectors – employed in the district’s eight municipalities.

The decision to call off the strike was announced by unions SIDIKEK-PEO, OIO-SEK and DEEK-DEOK.

Issuing a joint statement, the three unions said: “Following intense negotiations between the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance with trade unions and representatives of the municipalities of greater Nicosia, it became possible to overcome problems with relevant clarifications in the Labour Ministry’s proposal.”

The announcement said that during an emergency municipalities’ meeting it was agreed to accept the mediation services’ May 27 proposal for safeguarding the buying power of the workers’ provident fund. The decision will be signed at the mediation services’ offices today.

Earlier in the day, municipality workers had announced their decision to strike after negotiations between unions and municipal authorities fell through. The unions said the demand to secure the buying power of their provident fund was an 18-year-old demand, which would give them the same rights as civil servants.

Had the agreement not been reached, municipalities in other districts had been prepared to follow their Nicosia counterparts’ lead and take strike action.

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