The postman never rang once

AROUND 100 Limassol postmen went on a 24-hour strike yesterday in protest over what they said were unacceptable working conditions and the state’s failure to meet their demands despite assurances.

“We are asked to go round the town on motorcyclea that we bought and maintained at our own expense, risking our lives in the streets without life insurance and without accident insurance. Is that fair?” one Limassol postman who preferred to remain anonymous told the Cyprus Mail.

“I have been doing this job for 17 years and I am still paid on an hourly rate. Therefore I am not a permanent staff member. Then, they employ other staff for a couple of months and then fire them even though there is a lot of work just so that they don’t get any rights,” he added.

The postmen’s demands include an upgrade of wages, an age restriction on working outside the office, life insurance, and counting the amount of time it takes to deliver mail. “The demand for an age limit on working outside was placed because today we have 50-year-old men who have been doing this job for 20 years and still have to ride their motorcycle and deliver mail every day,” he said.

The postmen also object to the fact that they have to pay for the motorcycles that they use to deliver the mail. Postmen get a monthly stipend of €100 to cover petrol and maintenance costs, but argue that on some months they pay much more to fix their motorcycles.

Meanwhile, Trade Union SEK expressed its support for the strike. “It is unacceptable that staff have been threatened so that they would not take dynamic measures,” said Haris Antoniades of SEK.

The District Committee of Limassol Postmen, however, expressed its disagreement with the strike. “The strike was unnecessary as the satisfaction of the staff demands depends on the Ministry of Communications and Works, and the process of solving some of the problems has started, while other problems are at the dialogue stage,” said Neoclis Christofi, the committee’s President.

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.