Civil servants union PASYDY are claiming billions in back pay from the state, union boss Glafcos Hadjipetrou said on Monday.
He was speaking to reporters coming out of a meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades, where they discussed the recent deal carved out between the government and the union concerning the status of civil servants working in the healthcare sector.
Announced last week, the agreement provides for the unfreezing of 185 nursing positions, the extension of minimum-term contracts to six-months – as opposed to contracts as short as 15 days previously offered – and giving all nurses working at state hospitals for 30 months open-ended employment contracts.
Hadjipetrou said he and Anastasiades talked about the ways in which the deal can be implemented.
The union boss said he received the president’s assurances that the necessary actions would be swiftly carried out. The relevant legislation would need to be amended.
The deal puts an end to the job insecurity of hundreds of healthcare professionals, noted Hadjipetrou.
Responding to questions, he said PASYDY is also claiming billions in compensation from the state as a result of the government’s decision three years ago to slash the pay of persons employed in the central government and the broader public sector.
The union has challenged the legality of the decision with the Supreme Court, demanding its annulment.
According to Hadjipetrou, the cuts in salaries and pensions come to about €140 million per month.
Extrapolating this figure, over a period of three years the total amount would work out to just over €5 billion.
“The constitution mandates that, whenever the country needs it, everyone should contribute according to their ability. This is not what happened in this case, and that is why we took to the courts,” the union chief said, alluding to the public cutbacks imposed after Cyprus was bailed out by international lenders in 2013.
The government’s decision then was arbitrary, he added, as it was not outcome of “social dialogue”.
In effect, Hadjipetrou was arguing that civil servants were singled out in the drive to save the economy.
The syndicate boss said the courts have already ruled that pensions constitute an asset, which therefore a person cannot be deprived of except for reasons explicitly cited in the constitution.
This prior legal outcome would have a bearing on the ongoing appeal against the 2013 pay cuts, he opined.
And even if the Supreme Court were to rule that the pay reductions were legal, a correction ought to be found, “so that everyone contributes, as happened in 1974.”
Meantime, as a result of the healthcare sector deal, nurses affiliated to PASYDY have called off strikes announced earlier.
But independent nurses union PASYNO, which has additional demands, is still planning to go ahead with 12-hour strikes for February 22 and 23.
Among others, they want nurses’ degrees to be equated with university-degree level.
