Separate meetings on Thursday of the trade unions and employers’ organisations with the ministers of labour and finance on the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA) dispute failed to break the deadlock, even as earlier President Nikos Christodoulides had expressed hope for a positive outcome.

“The framework that has been set by the two ministers, one we had discussed with both ministers taking into account the positions of both sides, constitutes a very good foundation, a very good basis to reach an agreement the soonest possible,” the president said in remarks from Paphos.

“Our partners, both on the side of the employers and the trade unions, have proved their responsibility in Cyprus and I believe that today the dialogue can lead to positive results,” he added.

The ministers of labour and finance met on Thursday morning with the employers’ organisations and later in the day with the trade unions, in an effort to reach a mutually acceptable arrangement.

The representatives of OEV and Keve departed from the labour ministry without making any statements, remaining faithful to the moratorium on remarks they had agreed to.

The meeting lasted just over two hours.

At 1pm, trade unions SEK, PEO, Deok and Pasydy entered a meeting with the two ministers. They came out two hours later, likewise declining to speak to the media.

Absent an apparent breakthrough, the labour ministry later put out a statement saying efforts for a deal on CoLA “are ongoing” and more meetings would take place on Friday.

The ministry did note that Thursday’s talks were “useful and productive”.

Unions from the private and public sectors staged a three-hour strike on September 11 calling for employers to return to the full payment of CoLA, a position the employers have downright dismissed.

Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou has proposed CoLA for all on a sliding scale according to salary.

Meanwhile, Akel issued a statement saying Cypriot workers were “outraged by the mockery” of remarks that the average salary in Cyprus was €2,500, when they know that the average was being pushed upwards by thousands of highly paid employees from abroad working for high technology and financial companies.

Akel pointed out that salaries in Cyprus remained 30 per cent lower than the EU average, 40 per cent of workers were earning less than €1,750 gross per month and pay rises did not reflect the increasing cost of living, at a time when the economy was recording high growth rates and companies were boasting record profits.

With so many workers near or under the poverty threshold, Akel says the growth rates should be reflected in the salaries, with an increase of the minimum wage, CoLA for all and collective agreements to cover more employees in the private sector.