Labour minister continues efforts to solve hotels pay dispute

Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou continued her efforts on Friday to bridge the gap between hoteliers and employees who are currently embroiled in a pay dispute.

In a meeting which lasted for several hours, the minister met with the heads of the Cyprus hotel association (Pasyxe), the association of Cyprus tourism enterprises (Stek), employers and industrialists federation (Oev) and the Cyprus chamber of commerce.

This follows a meeting she had on Tuesday with union reps who demand a return to the rights they had in 2013, which they say they gave up due to the economic crisis.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) after Friday’s meeting, Pasyxe chairman Haris Loizides said the meeting had been constructive. “There is good will from our side to try and find a solution.”

Oev director general Michael Antoniou told CNA “we will do everything we can to find a mutually acceptable solution but we have lines we draw.”

The key element which differentiates this effort from all previous ones and adds a degree of difficulty is that this is not a matter of renewing a collective agreement.

“Unions demand legislating salaries of the industry.”

Emilianidou is set to hold a joint meeting between hoteliers and union reps on Monday at 10am.

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.