State broadcaster off the air

EMPLOYEES OF the state broadcaster went on a four-hour strike yesterday to protest against the Board’s perceived delays in implementing prior agreements on staff promotions and other labour-related issues.

The unions of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) employees, EVRIK, SYTYRIK and SIDIKEK-PEO, called the strike from 6pm to 10pm yesterday. Their main demands were for the Board of Directors and management to honour the agreements signed with the head of the Labour Ministry’s Labour Relations Department on March 5. The agreements relate to filling empty positions and agreed promotions.

The unions also called for the Board to set a clear timeframe to deal issues of irregular employment and terms of employment of hourly staff and threaten to intensify measures if CyBC does not pledge to implement the March 5 agreement. Finally, the unions referred to the patience shown regarding the long-standing health and safety problems troubling CyBC employees, which include studios filled with the stench of animal corpses stuck on the roof.

Head of the Board, Makis Keravnos, yesterday maintained that the Board had stuck to all its commitments, noting that it would be unethical to undertake costly promotions just a few days before the term of the current Board of Directors comes to an end.

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.