B.P. EMPLOYEES yesterday agreed to call off an indefinite strike after an agreement was reached on renewal of a collective agreement between unions and the company.
The dispute arose during negotiations when demands for a rise in pensions and redundancy pay were denied.
A proposal issued by the Labour Ministry’s mediation service clarifying the arrangements for pension increases caused outrage among the employees who staged 24- and 48-hour strikes last week.
But the talks that took yesterday did not satisfy Exxon-Mobil employees who were also on strike and who vowed to stay out indefinitely until all their demands are met.
A statement from BP said the strike has been called off and petrol stations on the island and at airports and ports will be back in business from tomorrow.
Speaking to the Sunday Mail, PEO union spokesman Athos Eleftheriou said BP had agreed to the employees’ demands.
“BP has agreed to pay 100 per cent of Cost of Living Allowance,” he said.
“Their employees have agreed to the terms and the strike has been called off.”
On Friday, BP Chairman George Petrou said that if the strike continued, petrol stations on the island would be left without fuel from early next week, leading to speculation that the same would apply for Esso and Mobil petrol stations, run by Exxon-Mobil, if an agreement is not reached by tomorrow.
Exxon-Mobil spokesmen were yesterday unavailable for comment.
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.
