Unannounced port workers strike costs taxpayer €4,000

 

DESPITE assurances that workers in essential services would not be affected by the three-hour broader state sector strike today, drivers of one union at the Limassol port decided, without notice, to take part in the action, disrupting the smooth operation of the harbour and costing taxpayers €4,000 in overtime pay.

According to Yiannakis Kokkinos, the ports authority general manager, the decision of crane workers belonging to left-wing PEO, affected four cargo ships, which were due to be unloaded between 4pm and midnight today at an additional overtime cost of €4,000.

The chairman of licensed stevedores Stavros Stavrou said he was surprised by the decision.

“This created serious problems for us. We have no problem with the workers and the right to strike but there should have been a warning so that we could see how to operate,” Stavrou said.

 

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.