Cabinet approves 13th salary for three-child families

THE CABINET yesterday voted to extend its 13th salary provision to families with three children. The measure will be applied retroactively to include the provision of a 13th salary for 2009.

“Essentially it will be 50 per cent of the monthly wage. It is the same allowance which multi-child families [those families with four children or more] have received,” said government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou.

The total cost to the state of providing a 13th salary to families with three children amounts to €2.3million. Its retroactive application will result in three-child families also receiving the 13th salary which multi-child families received on December 12, 2009.

The decision came at the first meeting of the Cabinet to include the new ministers, Erato Kozakou Markoullis and Demetris Eliades.

In his speech welcoming the new ministers to the Cabinet, President Christofias said that, despite their coming from different political parties and movements, they will be operating as representatives of the government, adding: “We operate as a family, and this all the ministers can confirm.” He said that he expected the two new Ministers would produce significant and fruitful results in their respective undertakings.

During the meeting the members of the Technical Council of Examiners were also announced. The council is the examining body responsible for entrance into the civil service. “The Council will have the responsibility of modernising the examinations given by the Education Ministry for appointments to the wider public sector,” said Education Minister Andreas Demetriou.

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.