Call to unfreeze public sector posts

The House must consider the unfreezing of 1,851 vacant first appointment roles, civil servants union Pasydy director Stratis Mattheou and finance ministry director general George Panteli said on Wednesday.

The Cyprus News Agency reported that in a letter addressed to the House president, dated June 1, Panteli wrote that the request concerns positions that have been budgeted for and taken into account during the budget planning, and does not constitute a request to create new positions.

“The roles mentioned are deemed necessary for the orderly operation of the public sector and the implementation of government policies/decisions,” he added, requesting that the matter be included as a priority in the agenda of the next House finance committee.

“Taking into account the approval given by the House finance committee for the unfreezing of 126 EAC posts, which are included in the said unfreezing package, our position is that the exemption of the remaining 1,725 ​​posts from the ban on filling vacancies is justified,” he said, explaining that they are “absolutely necessary” for the operation of the public and wider public sectors.

Panteli also noted that all positions have been approved by parliament either in the state budget or in the budgets of public law organisations for 202.

“Therefore, the necessity of creating new/additional roles as well as abolishing existing ones was evaluated by the finance ministry at the stage of drawing up the respective budgets and before their submission for House approval.”

The ministry’s director general told CNA that these are not new roles, but positions that have been vacated after the retirement of personnel from various government agencies and “the release of all positions must proceed”.

He also said that if these largely concern the police, fire service and education, saying that problems may arise in the operation of schools in September if these positions are not unfrozen.

Of the total 1,851 positions, most, 1,011, concern 331 positions in education, 278 to cover the needs of the police in several locations, 219 in the fire service and 183 for secretarial staff within the civil service.

Of the remaining 714 positions, 525 would meet the needs of ministries and deputy ministries, 159 are within public law organisations and 30 within local authorities.

Pasydy director Stratis Mattheou stressed that “the positions are necessary and that Pasydy’s position is that they should be unfrozen immediately”.