Okypy hour staff to stage work stoppage (updated)

Okypy hour staff to stage work stoppage

State health services (Okypy) hourly paid staff have announced a two-hour work stoppage on Wednesday, that will begin at 11.30am.

The decision was announced by unions Sek and Peo, who said hourly paid staff were protesting over lack of equal treatment.

“Okypy’s repeated disregard for their hourly paid staff workers creates huge problems in the operations of public hospitals in Cyprus,” a statement said.

“Our continuous effort to see that fair treatment is applied to our members is constantly countered by Okypy’s attitude.

“Hourly paid staff are of paramount importance during the pandemic. They are the unsung heroes of the moment, who, even with a very low salary, transfer the patients from one ward to another, clean and disinfect the premises, support the doctors and nurses and, in general, take care of everything.

“The continuous violations of their employment rights led to the decision of announcing a strike. We want to make it clear that equal treatment and respect for the agreements are non-negotiable,” the statement concluded.

In the meantime, the state doctors and nurses trade unions (Pasydy, Pasyki and Pasyno) gave Okypy and the health ministry 10 days to invite them to a dialogue on the problems faced by public hospitals, warning they would take “dynamic action” if this does not take place.

The unions said these problems were due to the wrong actions of Okypy’s board of directors and central administration.

As a result, they said, the future of hospitals is at stake due to the lack of strategic planning and prioritisation, complete lack of communication, mismanagement of staff, lack of consultation mechanism and non-resolution of employment issues.