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PEO says strategy on foreign workers ‘modern-day slave trade’

ΕΡΓΑΖΟΜΕΝΟΙ ΠΡΟΣΤΑΤΕΥΤΙΚΑ ΜΕΤΡΑ

The PEO trade union on Tuesday called on the new government to bin the revised strategy on hiring foreign workers – announced by the outgoing administration a week ago – saying that it would wreak havoc on the labour market.

In a statement, the left-leaning union also warned that, unless the new strategy is repealed, they would consider taking “dynamic measures” – code for strikes – if necessary.

The revised strategy on the hiring of foreign [non-EU] nationals was revealed by outgoing Labour Minister Kyriacos Kousios last week – in one of the last acts of the outgoing Anastasiades government.

It proposes to broaden the list of businesses that can employ individuals from non-EU countries – effectively abolishing the decree that limits this practice to certain professions.

At the same time, the revised strategy will introduce a 30 per cent quota on employing foreigners in businesses who are not parties to collective agreements, while raising the quota to 50 per cent from the current 30 per cent for businesses who are parties to collective agreements.

In plugging the change, Kousios had said it would help stamp out the hiring of illegal workers.

But PEO said the proposed changes amount to a major deregulation of the labour market.

“The new strategy does not address the concerns and documented positions of the trade union movement, but rather it worsens the existing problems,” their statement read.

According to the union, the document describing the revised strategy undermines the very concept of what constitutes a collective agreement.

“A collective labour agreement is one that is drawn up and signed by the stakeholders. No other document or contract can be acceptable. This must also apply on the operations level.”

PEO said the new mechanisms introduced would seriously downgrade the role of stakeholders in assessing applications for the hiring of non-EU nationals.

“Essentially there is no representative mechanism that will discuss and substantiate actual workforce needs. Who, and on what criteria, gets to decide, and how will any labour shortages be documented? Who will confirm whether a shortage is due to real facts or is the result of downgraded terms of employment and, consequently, a breach of collective agreements?”

The union also highlighted the sweeping powers afforded to the labour minister under the new strategy – where the minister “can decide, as he deems fit, the granting of work permits.”

Another issue flagged related to companies hiring temporary workers. Under the revised strategy, businesses will be able to ‘loan out’ staff to other companies for short-term work.

“Essentially, the labour ministry is promoting modern-day slave trade,” PEO asserted.

“Setting a 30 per cent quota for businesses not implementing a collective agreement, coupled with the abolition of the quota per economic sector – which applied in the previous strategy – opens up the entire labour market, and in a way that rewards or encourages bad employment practices since, presumably, the terms of employment they offer are worse than those provided for in collective agreements.”

It’s understood that the outgoing government’s motive for the changes was to loosen up regulations to benefit primarily the hotel industry which complained of looming staff shortages as they find it hard to hire Cypriots.

 

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