Landslide vote for nursing strike (Updated)

An overwhelming majority of PASYNO nurses’ union members on Monday voted in favour of going on an indefinite strike in a bid to seek higher entry level wages.

Close to 1500 members voted, with Cyprus News Agency sources put the figures at 95 per cent in favour of a strike, two per cent against and three per cent leaving their ballots blank.

Seven per cent of the members abstained from voting.

The secret vote, which started from 7:30am in all state hospitals across the country, ended at 3:30pm with the results announced about two and a half hours later.

Union nurses will now demand moving up their current pay scale which currently ranges from A5 and A7, to A8 after having their qualification made equal to a university degree and the unfreezing of promotions. If the government agrees, it is estimated it would cost some €4 million for the first few years.

“The right to strike is completely respected and sacred. However, just as sacred, if not more sacred is the right of our fellow citizens to health,” Health Minister Giorgos Pamborides said in a statement.

“Therefore I appeal to all to consider their responsibilities in this sensitive time. I want to make clear that the state cannot function under threats and will not allow patients become hostage.”

Calling on them to engage in dialogue, he said developments were already underway in reforming the health sector, boosting health services for the public but also improving working conditions for everyone working in the sector.

No one would be left out of these efforts, Pamborides said “especially nurses which are an important pillar and without them there could be no health”.

On Tuesday, the board of directors of PASYNO will meet to evaluate the votes and decide on further action.

Earlier in the day, union general secretary Panayiotis Georgiou said “nurses were and are considerate of the state, their patients and their duties,” and had been patient enough due to the financial crisis.

It is now the government’s turn to be considerate of nurses, Georgiou added.

 

 

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.