Efforts to arrange further meetings to discuss the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA) with trade union and employer representatives are underway and will likely take place by the end of the week, Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou said on Wednesday.

The meetings follow discussions on the matter between the Labour Minister and trade unions on Tuesday and a meeting with the employers’ organisation (Oev) and chamber of commerce (Keve) on Monday – both of which ended without a significant outcome.

Panayiotou said a new meeting with the unions was planned for the end of the week, adding that a similar meeting would be arranged with the employers soon afterwards.

Trade union Sek general secretary Andreas Matsas, however, told the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday afternoon that so far no meeting had been confirmed for Friday.

The labour minister said that the government was prepared for “all scenarios”, adding that if an agreement was not reached soon, the ministry needed to take to institutional procedures to initiate next steps.

He emphasised that “no matter how correct both sides consider their positions to be, if they do not budge even a little, the differences wont be bridged.”

Panayiotou stressed that a future CoLA agreement needed to focus on low-wage and middle-income households, in order to “be paid in a fairer way”, and said conditions to prevent inflation through implementation of CoLA needed to be ensured.