Guards protest for personal safety at work, salary increases

Isotita trade union voiced its support for the strike and protest organised by the hourly paid guards outside the presidential palace on Sunday.

The group of guards employed by the game fund to combat poaching demand for immediate salary upgrades as they declared a 24-hour strike on Sunday.

They added that their employers apply unreasonable procedures that endanger the personal safety of workers, such as multiple and simultaneous tasks, obsolete weapons and vehicles, shortages of clothing and footwear, Alpha News reported.

These concerns were included in a letter addressed to the president and other officials by the guards and members of the Isotita union.

“Our colleagues have endured unacceptable injustices for the last 30 years. They have been deprived of tens of thousands of euros in wages and other labour rights. Despite facing attacks, assaults, daily threats to themselves and their families, bombing attacks, and arson against their vehicles and other properties, they tirelessly continue to protect our environment and wildlife,” Isotita’s statement reads.

The union highlights that the salaries of hourly gamekeepers in the combined E6-E7 scales start at €804.90, excluding the shift allowance, and go up to €1,411.96. In contrast, the corresponding public servant gamekeepers in the combined A2-A5-A7(ii) scales start from €1,242.58 and reach up to €3,276.58.

This, according to the union, “constitutes a blatant violation of the right to equal pay for equal work”.