THE UNION of Cyprus Retail Businesses yesterday condemned the decision by shopkeepers union Povek for an early Friday shutdown in protest at a proposal to extend shopping hours.
The Cyprus Federation of Professional Shopkeepers, Povek, on Tuesday announced that shops would be staging a national shutdown at 1pm today.
Povek also said shopkeepers and representatives from all towns would congregate outside the House of Representatives at 3pm in protest at the proposal to stretch closing times to 10 pm, six days a week.
The proposal was first brought before the House Labour Committee by deputies Nicos Pittocopitis and Elias Mirianthous.
It will be discussed at a House Labour Committee meeting this morning and may appear before the Plenum later today.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Union of Cyprus Retail Businesses (Enelek) said that not all shopkeepers agreed with Povek’s opposition to the later closing time.
The statement accused Povek of “deliberately trying to give the impression that all Cyprus shopkeepers are against the proposal,” when “the truth is that the majority of the interested parties are in favour of the proposal.”
The announcement then listed the parties in favour of the proposal as the Commerce and Labour Ministries, workers union Sek, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Employers and Industrialists’ Federation, the Cyprus Food Supermarkets’ Association, various hotel organisations, the Association of Travel Agents, tourism associations in every town, municipalities and the Consumers Association.
Enelek argued later closing times would be an advantage for the market, also noting that any new closing times would not be compulsory.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Povek secretary-general Melios Georgiou said that while shopkeepers would have the choice to remain open or to close earlier, competition would force them to adopt later times.
Owners of smaller shops, he said, may be forced to stay in person at their shops until 10pm if they couldn’t afford to hire extra staff.
Enelek’s statement claimed that a later time would provide better service to the consumer, while Georgiou on Tuesday said that the current time-table served the majority of consumers. Georgiou also noted that most of the work- force, “civil-servants, semi-government organisation employees and construction workers,” all finished work well before the current closing times.
Georgiou added that the Cyprus Consumer Association had not received wide- spread complaints about current shop-hours and that “the exception cannot be seen as the rule.”
And while Enelek claimed yesterday that the later hours would create more jobs, Povek said on Tuesday that operational costs and unemployment would in fact rise with “the queue of unemployed people growing longer, fed by former self-employed businessmen and their employees.” The Federation said that if any new jobs did open up, they would be in non-productive areas and of no real benefit to the country.
Enelek rejected Povek’s claims that later hours would spark illegitimate competition, and that home and social life would be upset, saying that many other professionals were forced to work long hours because of the nature of their work.
Enelek’s statement concluded that employers’ right to operate at the times they chose with the agreements on paying overtime “is considered to be sacred and should be completely respected.”
