THIS TIME last year, with the state having run out of money, the Christofias government was desperately looking for cash to pay the public employees’ monthly and 13th salaries in December. In the end, the government applied strong pressure on the unions of the three big semi-governmental organisations (CYTA, EAC and Ports Authority) which agreed to lend the state €250 million from their staff provident funds. Some union members protested but, in the end, the unions bailed out the government and there was no default on payments.
If the government were capable of behaving prudently, it would have borrowed only half the amount and told public employees there was no money for 13th salaries. Instead, the recklessly irresponsible president at the time borrowed the full amount and then boasted he had saved the 13th salaries, ignoring the fact he had added €120 million to the state’s mounting debt, by borrowing money that the state would be in no position to pay back in the foreseeable future.
Public employees’ 13th salaries have been back in the news, after House president Yiannakis Omirou proposed a three per cent cut to these, with the money saved being distributed among the long-term unemployed and other individuals in need, at Christmas. Omirou’s proposal incensed the PASYDY leadership, which called a two-hour work stoppage that was subsequently cancelled because of the death of former president Clerides. But it was an appallingly shameful reaction by the country’s most privileged workers who have been least affected by the depression.
This callous disregard for the impoverished members of our society was justified by claims that the three per cent cut would be unconstitutional. It might have been, but it was still disgraceful to call a strike because society’s most protected did not wish to help their destitute countrymen. What was even more shameful was the way Omirou, under pressure from PASYDY has been back-pedalling; it has not helped that many deputies have expressed opposition to his proposal. This is the level of community spirit we have.
Omirou’s proposal, which might be unconstitutional and will be discussed by parties on Thursday, is very superficial, as it assumes within three weeks the state services will have gone through lists of those eligible for support and prepared payments. Such an operation would need months to complete. The likelihood is that the proposal will be shelved and the ‘vulnerable groups’ will get nothing for Christmas.
If we had politicians capable of looking ahead, payment of 13th salaries in the public sector would have been suspended from last year. The current government could have taken such a decision this year, on the grounds that money was needed to help the growing numbers of impoverished citizens, but it also felt that keeping the privileged workers happy was the right thing.
