Trade unions Sek, Peo, and Deok expressed their dissatisfaction on Tuesday over what they called an “unfortunate intervention” by Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou into the unresolved labour dispute in the ready-mix concrete sector.
The unions issued a joint statement after meeting the minister. They claimed they had respected the minister’s request to avoid public statements about the informal meeting to help defuse tensions.
However, they said that Panayiotou’s intervention left them no choice but to clarify their position. Earlier in the day, Panayiotou urged both the employers and unions to “act constructively, accept the proposed negotiation framework, and suspend ongoing strike actions.”
Panayiotou stressed that a “demonstration of responsibility from both sides is essential to restoring normality”, adding that his expectation was that workers’ and employers’ representatives would approach the matter responsibly.
He said efforts had been made to bridge the differences between the two sides, calling on them to adjust their positions.
“Instead of supporting a constructive mediation process to restore overtime employment, the minister has chosen to create misleading impressions that undermine the social dialogue and unfairly damage the credibility of the union movement and the workers themselves,” the unions said.
They urged the employers to “take responsibility” and called on the minister to remain impartial.
They reiterated their ongoing struggle to secure fundamental rights through the renewal of the collective agreement, aiming to fully protect workers’ rights.
The unions added that the minister’s proposal, presented to both sides, had been accepted by the workers but rejected by the employers. They argued this “showed which party was genuinely interested in resolving the dispute, especially given the sector’s profitability compared to stagnant wages”.
Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, the concrete makers’ association ordered striking workers to get back to work.
In a statement released after the association held an extraordinary general meeting, it said workers must “resume serving the construction industry … to contribute to mitigating the problems arising from the strike.”
It added that workers and their trade unions should “assume their responsibilities” and “terminate their strike measures to normalise the problems and enter a dialogue.
“We declare our readiness to participate in good faith negotiations alongside the labour ministry, within a new framework,” it said.
It also called on all sides to “act respectfully” and in a “civilised manner”.
The statement came as association head Costas Kythreotis told state broadcaster CyBC that members of his association are receiving “repeated phone calls and threats” from union members to not work with people who are not union members.
The workers had initially gone on strike last week, demanding to be paid for overtime worked and a return to their pre-2013 collective labour agreement conditions.
Kythreotis told the Cyprus News Agency that he and other employers had refused to participate in proposed meetings with the minister on Tuesday “because the framework of negotiations given to us [by Panayiotou] was not accepted by our members”.
“It did not leave any room for negotiations to be entered,” he added, repeating his claim that non-unionised workers were “trying to work” but that those on strike were creating “a lot of obstruction”.
“They threaten to beat them, to break cars, so because we do not want the situation to escalate, we took action to reduce this,” he said.
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