A tussle at a concrete factory on Monday was immediately downplayed by police and union Sek as a minor incident, while the union said the long-running strike would end as soon as employers accept the minister’s final proposal.

Police described the incident at a factory in Kokkinotrimithia as the result of a “minor clash” which did not escalate.

General secretary of Sek union, Stelios Tsiapoutis, told the Cyprus News Agency minor altercations had taken place at the site and a trade union official had been bumped by a concrete mixer which had “moved back and forth a little”.

“It’s nothing to worry about, he went to the hospital in an ambulance and was discharged with a sprained ankle,” Tsiapoutis said.

The driver of the concrete mixer was a worker who “had been ordered by an employer to do the job”, the union leader added.

Among workers, whether unionised or not, solidarity prevailed, Tsiapoutis assured.

“There are no particular tensions, we should not give it [the incident] any further importance,” he said.

Earlier on Monday Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou said the workers’ unions had been “positive” about a planned meeting to sign his final mediation proposals into effect and that the employers’ response was pending.

“The signing of the agreement is necessary for the restoration of normality and to this end it is expected that the necessary responsibility will be shown without delays and retreats,” Panayiotou said.

Employers, meanwhile, said a legal team review was holding up their side.

Over the weekend employers and workers initially seemed to be set to imminently close the deal, however, this fell through when trade union Sek first complained that the handling of overtime pay was still not satisfactory.

Later on Sunday, trade unions announced that strike measures would continue until the employers’ side accepted the minister’s proposal as it was and that they were waiting for the latter to show up to sign it.
But employers were still deliberating the agreement’s contents on Monday, saying they had not received the full proposal.

“We asked to have the documents [of the final text] we still haven’t received them,” employers’ association head Kostas Kythraiotis told the Cyprus News Agency.

He added it had been 20 years since the last collective agreement, that many amendments had been made, and that they could not sign without seeing the full document.

Speaking about the setback in the construction industry created by strike Kythraiotis said it could be recovered but that the market would not return to normal until after Christmas.

Figures released on Friday revealed that the almost month-long strike had cost the industry between €80 million and €100m, while workers are expected to down tools as usual for the Christmas season from December 20 to January 2.

Concern arose among unions over the weekend that the labour ministry and employers would take action to re-start concrete production behind the scenes using strike-breakers, Philenews reported.
According to reports assurances of police protection had been offered to factories with a non-unionised majority.

Concrete workers’ unions issued a joint statement condemning the employers’ side for “misleading of public opinion” and for “a game of pretence” over accepting the latest proposals.

State support for any attempts at strikebreaking would be taken as unacceptable and result in reactions, Sek union said.