Minister to deal ‘aggressively’ with illegal work

The issue of people working illegally in Cyprus will be dealt with “aggressively”, Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou said on Tuesday.

Panayiotou was evaluating his first year in the post and looking ahead to his second, and said he plans to “strengthen the institutional framework” regarding inspections of workplaces to uncover cases of illegal employment.

This will entail an increase in the frequency of scheduled inspections, as well as an “electronic census” of all employees and self-employed people, with the aim of increasing the government’s oversight of Cyprus’ labour market.

In addition, he said, the government will clamp down heavier on people falsely declaring themselves as self-employed, to ensure people are “correctly categorised” for social insurance purposes.

Other policy areas mentioned by Panayiotou in his plans for the coming year include better regulation of the “terms and conditions of work”, including a better framework to deal with bullying and harassment.

Additionally, he said, he plans to harmonise Cyprus’ legislation with European Union directives regarding minimum wages, and to make provisions for “upgrading the social dialogue for a better regulation of labour relations.”

He also said the government plans to support working parents, firstly by adding to state benefits for working and self-employed parents, and by paying maternity pay on time.

At the same time, he spoke of increasing the employment rate of local workers and carrying out a “targeted campaign” to attract workers from other EU and European Economic Area countries to work in Cyprus.

This, he said, will allow for “a more flexible staffing” of Cyprus’ labour market.

In addition to this, he said, the government plans to sign bilateral agreements with EU candidate countries and other third countries “for the utilisation of medium and low-skilled workers.”

Looking back on his first year in office, he extolled the virtues of increasing the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA) paid to two thirds, which he said has benefited a total of 180,000 workers across the island.

In addition, he said the raising of the minimum wage to €1,000 per month has left 25,000 people better off. This policy went hand in hand with industry-specific minimum wages, which allowed for salary increases for low-income hotel workers, as well as young scientists, lawyers and engineers.

He also spoke of how the payment of pensions within the first month of retirement to all retirees has allowed Cyprus’ elderly to more easily make ends meet, and mentioned that more than 80 per cent of people registered unemployed now receive their first unemployment benefit payment within a month and a half of becoming unemployed.

He also mentioned the increase in maternity leave for new working mothers, allowing 5,000 women a year to spend more time off work to tend to their firstborn children.