President urges parties act sensibly on shop hours  

President Nicos Anastasiades weighed in on the debate over shop hours on Friday, urging parties to act responsibly and stay away from populist approaches.

Opposition parties have taken away the labour minister’s power to issue decrees regulating shop opening hours and looked poised to scrap Sundays.

Under the system, the minister issued decrees on an ad hoc basis allowing shops across Cyprus to operate on Sundays extended hours during the rest of the week.

This prompted shops to hire more staff, around 7,000, according to the minister.

The last decree expires on April 30, meaning that past that date the issue of shop opening hours would be thrown into limbo.

Anastasiades said he hopes “wiser thoughts would prevail so as not to add 7,000 to the unemployed.”

Small businesses have decried the measure, saying it only served big enterprises.

Anastasiades said he did not disregard the possible problems but added that he did not think “shop operation on Sundays led to further problems.”

Retail trade has increased by 2 per cent since the measure was introduced two years ago, according to official statistics.

The retailers association contends that the measure has been a success.

 

 

 

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.