ANOTHER CASE of labour exploitation of Romanian workers has come to light after SEK union reported one employer for keeping 17 workers unpaid for the last four months and in squalid conditions.

During prime time news last night, the state broadcaster CyBC showed images of Romanian employees living in wooden huts and commercial containers on a construction site in the Moutayiaka area of Limassol. The makeshift huts were situated next to luxury homes being developed on the site.

According to CyBC, the workers were receiving just €60 a week, instead of the agreed sum in the contract, while their employer subtracted one euro per day from their wages for what he called accommodation.

THE Finance Ministry yesterday denied charges by ‘friend’ and foe alike that it was cooking the books to present a lower public deficit and suggested that its detractors lacked the knowledge of public finances.

The ministry was responding to accusations from opposition DISY vice chairman Averof Neophytou and government partner DIKO MP Nicolas Papadopoulos that the government had engaged in accounting “alchemy” to present a better picture of the economy.

Neophytou yesterday charged that the government had postponed certain 2010 payments for 2011 and showed 2012 revenues this year, suggesting the government lacked credibility.

CYPRUS should not expect a drop in unemployment any time soon, a top economist said yesterday, as jobless rates hit a new high in January, reaching 7.2 per cent.

“We should expect a labour recovery in two to three years because unemployment always recedes last after a recession,” Nobel laureate Christophoros Pissarides said.

The number of unemployed in January reached 28,914 people, a 2.9 per cent rise compared to December 2010.

The year-on-year increase was 22.3 per cent or 5,269 people, the statistics service said.

Speaking after a meeting with Labour Minister Sotiroulla Charalambous, Pissarides, who specialises in labour economics, said unemployment was always a concern.

AN EXPATRIATE couple who faced homelessness last September after a developer sold them flat with outstanding mortgage payments have at last been assured they can stay in the flat for the rest of their lives.

However, for Ken and Mary Hudson, both 72, it is a bittersweet outcome, as they will not be allowed to pass the flat they paid €41200 for onto their children; it remains the bank’s property.

Speaking from her home in Larnaca yesterday, Mary Hudson said: “The Land Registry was very understanding, and they told us that we could rest assured that ‘as the case stands’ we can stay where we are ‘until we go to heaven’”

EVERY household in Cyprus knows someone close to them with cancer, Health Minister Christos Patsalides told a conference held yesterday for World Cancer Day.

According to some experts, cancer is a pandemic, Patsalides said.

“Some 3.2 million people are diagnosed every year in Europe and 84 million will lose their lives to cancer worldwide unless preventative measures are taken,” he said.

“The way things are going with our lifestyle changes and an ageing population, cancer will soon overtake circulatory diseases to become the leading cause of death in Cyprus,” president of the National Cancer Committee (NCC), Adamos Adamou, said.

ELDERS’ CHAIR Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his fellow Elder Dr Gro Brundtland will travel to Cyprus on February 8 and 9 to support the release of a documentary film called “Cyprus: Digging the Past in Search of the Future.”

On 10 February they will also join their fellow Elder Lakhdar Brahimi at special screenings of the film in London at the British parliament, and with members of the Cypriot diaspora.

The documentary film follows three Elders – Desmond Tutu, Lakhdar Brahimi and Jimmy Carter – and four young Cypriots from the north and south of the island as they learn of the search for the remains of thousands of missing people in Cyprus.

TEENAGERS between the ages of 15 and 18 aren’t protected by employment laws and have no legal protection when it comes to health and safety.

A draft law prepared by the Labour Ministry and Child Commissioner Leda Koursoumba should tighten these existing loopholes, the Commissioner said yesterday.

Back in October, Koursoumba had called on the Labour Minister to update the laws surrounding children and teenagers in employment.

“The Ministry has made substantial and systematic efforts to regulate many aspects that concern the employment of underage persons, such as the suitability of working conditions and the time table, so that the underage workers’ health and safety are ensured to the maximum,” said Koursoumba.