The main civil servants’ union on Tuesday slammed a recently published report of the International Monetary Fund, vowing to fight any attempt to “encroach” on workers’ rights.

In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency, head of the trade union Stratis Mattheou said the measures proposed in the IMF report are the same as those put forward in 2013.

“It’s an old recipe, the same one from 2013,” Mattheou said.

“Just think of it: in 2013 when our economy was in dire straits, they proposed these same measures that they propose now when the economy is said to be doing very well. We have one of the highest rates of GDP growth in the EU, unemployment has dropped below 5 per cent, and public debt has been drastically reduced.”

The union boss called it “odd” that the same measures – suspending the Cost of Living Allowance (CoLA) for government employees or reducing it, and ending 13th salaries for civil servants – are being rehashed now.

Asked whether the union (Pasydy) has any information about what steps the finance ministry plans to take, Mattheou said no.

“The official position of the union is that under no circumstances will we agree to the specific measures being proposed, namely abolishing the 13th salary, or having automatic pay increments given every two years instead of one, or a freeze on promotions.

“In no circumstances will we agree to return to the 2013 era.”

The IMF dossier was made public on April 11. Whereas noting that the government workforce in Cyprus was “moderate in size”, it had a great deal more to say that was unflattering.

It pointed out for instance that, on average, public-sector workers in Cyprus earn 27 per cent more than their private-sector counterparts.

And the earnings of the average public servant “more than triple over a working life”, the IMF said.

It noted that what is rewarded in the Cypriot public sector is “length of tenure”, something for which there is “no justification on human resource grounds”.

The report added: “High pay levels are not translating into high-quality public services. The overall performance of the government sector is among the weakest in Europe… the system provides poor value for money.”

But Pasydy’s Mattheou said they are willing to discuss “some” of the measures proposed – such as increasing the mobility of civil servants.

“We are ready to discuss anything that makes the state apparatus more efficient and functional,” he added, citing modernisation and digitisation as examples.

“Anything that does not involve encroaching on the rights of civil servants, yes we are willing to discuss it. What we want is a civil service that’s fully digitised, without red tape, without duplication.”

Asked if the union might agree to a potential reduction in permanent positions due to digitisation, Mattheou said they’d have no objection.

“But I’d like to point out that 70 per cent of the positions are in public education, the security services and healthcare.”

In late 2012, as part of a preliminary deal between Cyprus and international lenders, parliament passed a series of laws slashing salaries and benefits for people employed in the broader public sector.

The salary reductions began being rolled back in July 2018, and were implemented in stages every January 1 of each year. The final stage in phasing out the cuts came into force on January 1 of 2023 – at which date civil servants recovered all the salary reductions imposed since 2012.

The rollback has led to a significant rise in the public sector wage bill.