CyBC staff to be paid ‘after April 1’ (Update 2)

Employees of public broadcaster CyBC will be paid after April 1, its board of directors said on Friday.

The board said payments would be made “immediately” after Monday’s public holiday, “as soon as it is processed by the banks.”

They said transfers are made through a German bank, and as there are public holidays in Germany due to easter being celebrated there this weekend, it was not possible for salaries to be paid on Friday, the originally planned date.

Additionally, they said, “huge efforts were made to overcome all the obstacles which arose due to the freezing of CyBC’s bank accounts”, with money now flowing back into CyBC after parliament passed its budget on Thursday.

Employees had held a one-hour strike on Friday over delays in receiving their pay despite previous government assurances their wages would be paid later in the day.

According to an announcement from the CyBC unions, employees went on strike from 1.30pm until 2.30pm.

Payment would not be made on Friday “despite gigantic efforts”, unions said, adding that they were informed by the board that the delay was due to banking issues and that salaries would be paid on April 2.

This would come after a bank holiday weekend as well as the end of the month, in a break from standard practice.

The unions said the board should inform employees of this development but did not make it clear if this had been done. They also called on the board to undertake a thorough investigation for the issue of untimely salary payment and to establish procedures to ensure that this would not be repeated in the future.

The protest was “first and foremost” against the lack of wage protection, the unions said, before going on to say payment must be made “in any case” on the last working day of the month, which this month was Friday the 29^th.

At the same time, the unions said they were sending a stern message to the employers’ side about the need to effectively address problems and reconfigure the general negative image of the organisation. This concerned the mechanisms for addressing chronic unresolved labour issues, the failure to respect agreements and collective agreements, the non-implementation of labour laws, the failure to launch procedures and processes to promote new building facilities that would ensure an adequate workplace.

“We consider it a disaster to fight for the obvious, as well as the lack of consultation, information and a culture that respects workers. We declare ourselves ready to assist to change the mentality that characterises top management,” the unions said.

The unions criticised the board for the late submission of the CyBC budget to parliament for approval, which also hindered timely payment of employees.

On Thursday, the budgets for CyBC along with several other semi-governmental organisations were passed by parliament in the nick of time.

This move allowed the organisations to resume normal payment procedures.

During the months of January and February, organisations whose budgets have yet to get the nod from parliament can still pay staff under a temporary system known as “twelfths” – where only a sum equivalent to not more than one twelfth of the budget appropriations for the previous year may be spent each month for any chapter of the budget.

The “twelfths” system expired at the end of February – meaning that if the budgets of these organisations had not passed this month, they would be barred from making any payments and hundreds of employees would have been left unpaid.

To date, 41 out of the 43 semi-governmental organisations have had their budgets passed. The two outliers are the Technical University of Cyprus (Tepak) and the Office of the Commissioner for the Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation.

Regarding CyBC, its budget came to €39.3 million. Payroll accounts for €26.7 million.

The passage of the budget should have defused tensions at CyBC, where unions had threatened strikes unless the March salaries were paid out.

However, the situation with payment of salaries was complicated by the fact that all CyBC bank accounts were frozen by court order.