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A PUBLIC row raged on yesterday over what the government claims is the hoteliers’ practice of firing Cypriot workers in favour of cheaper, often uninsured, EU personnel.
Labour Minister Sotiroulla Charalambous yesterday picked up where President Demetris Christofias left off in censuring the hoteliers on Tuesday, saying inspections have found that over one-third of the EU nationals working at hotels had no social security or other benefits.
Charalambous said the system was not only discriminatory, but in some cases also illegal, as a large percentage of non-Cypriot EU workers were working uninsured.
PRESIDENT Christofias’ anti-business prejudice was on show again during Tuesday’s AGM of the Hoteliers’ Association (PASYXE) at which he was a guest. Displaying a complete lack of tact Christofias launched a scathing attack on hoteliers, whom he accused of firing Cypriot workers and hiring foreigners on much lower wages and fewer benefits.
This behaviour was “not socially acceptable because it wrongfully leads people to unemployment, condemns workers to working for lower wages and harms the tourist product that we are trying to promote”, he said. And then, like an angry headmaster speaking to his misbehaving charges at a school assembly, he warned hoteliers of the consequences they would suffer for their unacceptable actions.
EXPELLED FORMER DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias yesterday hit back at his political executioners, accusing the party leadership of turning DIKO into a “political mule” and “satellite” of governing party AKEL.
DIKO’s executive office and parliamentary group overwhelmingly voted on Tuesday to expel Koulias and former deputy leader Georgios Colocassides from the party, citing actions that undermined and showed contempt to the collective decisions of the party organs.
Speaking to reporters from parliament yesterday, Koulias hit back, saying what took place on Tuesday was a “political coup” and “pogrom” under the guise of a “supposedly democratic process”.
NATIONAL carrier Cyprus Airways (CY) yesterday announced a code-sharing agreement for transatlantic flights with Britain’s second largest airline Virgin Atlantic.
Under the agreement, travellers will be able to buy single itineraries to connect with ease between Larnaca and a variety of Virgin Atlantic’s United States destinations.
“We are confident that the Cyprus travelling public will actively welcome this partnership, as it will open the North Atlantic market on Cyprus’ national carrier code in cooperation with Virgin Atlantic, jointly providing the care and comfort that both carriers offer on their flights, “ CY executive chairman Giorgos Mavrocostas said.
THE UN expects the July 7 tripartite meeting in Geneva to produce “a clear way forward to concluding the negotiations” on the Cyprus problem, said UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer yesterday.
Speaking after a meeting with President Demetris Christofias, the Australian diplomat said the Geneva meeting was “very important”, adding that in a very broad sense, the UN expected to see a clear way forward to concluding negotiations from the meeting.
“What we want is for the leaders to have a very clear way forward. We hope the meeting will in itself be a very useful and constructive meeting but as to what happens beyond that, we look forward to them implementing a clear plan to bring the negotiations to a conclusion,” said Downer.
ARRESTS for sporting violence last season were three times higher than the year before, police said yesterday.
Presenting figures on sport-related violence and comparing this past season with the one before, police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said there was a massive 176.66 per cent increase in arrests, with 2010/2011 seeing the arrest of 249 “sporting hooligans”, compared to 90 the previous season.
Katsounotos said this was a record number and proved the force’s determination to combat violence in sport.
He added that the police chief issued over 100 bans in the past year, excluding troublesome fans from entering sport grounds to watch their teams.
CYPRUS is second in Europe after Belgium for internet coverage island wide, Communications Minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis said yesterday.
Marcoullis was speaking at the third annual telecommunications conference Infocom 2011 yesterday, which focused on the use of digital technology to boost economic development.
Internet coverage island wide has taken a mammoth leap since 2009 with coverage rate jumping from a meagre 30 per cent to 100 per cent by 2010, surpassing the European average rate of 82.5 per cent, according to Marcoullis.
CYPRUS’ rate of population growth is among the highest in the EU with a predicted increase of 41 per cent by 2060 according to the latest Eurostat Survey.
However Cyprus’ population of over 80 year olds is predicted to be among the lowest by then, at nine per cent.
As a whole, the EU population is set to rise to 525 million by 2035, peak at 526 million around 2040 and then gradually decline to 517 million by 2060, when (on average) one in eight people will be aged 80 or more.
The EU population is also projected to continue ageing, with the share of the population aged 65 years and over rising from 17 per cent in 2010 to 30 per cent in 2060.
Those aged 80 and over are predicted to rise from 5 per cent to 12 per cent over the same period.
ON SATURDAY a budding Cypriot scientist will take part in science’s equivalent of pop idol, Famelab, at the UK’s Cheltenham science festival.
Myrtani Pieri, a biological researcher at the University ofCyprus, won her place in the final in the national competition, organised by the British Council in Cyprus on April 17.
She will be given three minutes to wow the Famelab judges with her chosen topic: the role of the immune system in pregnancy.
Pieri will go up against 13 other finalists with her talk, “How deep is your love” which the rules state should be comprehensible to a general adult audience, may include small props but, thankfully, no Powerpoint presentations.
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.
