Talks continue and will continue with the aim of bringing employers and workers to an agreement over the matter of the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA), employers’ groups said on Friday after a joint meeting with Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou.

“The dialogue continues, and we want the conditions for a successful outcome of the dialogue to exist. We are available at any time to move forward,” Cyprus chamber of commerce and industry (Keve) chairman Stavros Stavrou said.

Meanwhile, employers’ and industrialists’ federation (Oev) chairman George Pantelides said employers are committed to continuing the dialogue.

“We want to maintain a good, positive climate, because our main goal is to find a solution to a time-consuming issue, if you like. Our concern remains the protection of the economy, the competitiveness of our businesses, and our suggestions and observations in this dialogue are in this direction,” he said.

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As such, he said that he calls on “our colleagues in the trade union movement to come with an open mind to find these solutions which will help us move forward”.

He added to this end that employers “want to believe that there is room for both sides to discuss”.

“We are committed, both Keve and Oev, to finding a solution. This is our goal,” he said, before going on to insist that “the goal of the business community is not to limit costs or not reward workers”.

Instead, he said, employers’ goal is “mainly to strengthen the economy in an international environment which is being shaken by 1,002 changes”.

“Therefore, we must be dedicated to supporting and protecting the economy with solutions which have value in the long term. What is being done is not exclusively an economic discussion, but [we aim] to implement something which will be timeless,” he said.

He added that workers “are an integral part of the economy”, and that employers “are the first to want their human resources to be satisfied, provided that there is the financial capacity”.

“The balance of development and reward of human resources is a common factor for everyone. We are not only focusing on the cost, but on the sustainability of the economy, and by extension, businesses,” he said.

“We are all here for a purpose, and there must be respect, and there is. In negotiations, everyone sees things from their own lens, but in the final analysis, there is only one lens – the good of the economy and of this place. Lest we forget that a good state is based on three pillars: well-intentioned business, a strong economy, and a prosperous society.”

With this in mind, he said all three parties to the discussion – workers, employers, and the government – are working towards the same goal.

“To be in dialogue and to talk means that we respect the opposite side, the union side, which fights for the rights in which it believes. We fight for ours in the business world, and the government also fights as a mediator for the economy of this place,” he said.

Workers and employers have found themselves for months at loggerheads over the matter of CoLA, with a three-hour strike staged last month having brought the island to a standstill.