Trade unions Sek, Peo and Deok have sent a letter to President Nikos Christodoulides calling on him to annul a cabinet decision to gradual drop 1,000 hourly workers by 2035 and to treat them fairly.

The unions, which met on Friday to discuss the issue, requested a meeting with Christodoulides to make their point.

They are now waiting for “a positive reply from the president of the Republic, to prevent any measures being taken.”

The unions said the cabinet decision was one-sided, the unions had not been informed, no dialogue had been held and no study carried out to see how state services would operate without the dismissed employees.

They added that hourly workers were already at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the employees in the civil service.

Furthermore, they said the state was assigning projects to large companies, when the hourly staff could do the job.