Unions expect Christodoulides to make next move over CoLA

Trade unions expect President Nikos Christodoulides to make the next move after efforts to secure the future of the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA) hit the buffers when employers rejected the government’s latest proposal last week.

“For us, the dialogue has ended, it has been exhausted. We have been discussing this for six months. The last meeting with employers was left on a small point of difference. We are not going to start a discussion again from the beginning,” Pasydy leader Stratis Mattheou told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

“Therefore, for us, the issue is over, and we expect initiatives from the government, from the president.”

He said four trade unions – Pasydy, Sek, Peo, and Deok – will hold a meeting on Tuesday, while a further meeting of all trade unions will take place at a later date with the aim of “assessing the situation and making decisions”.

Meanwhile, Cyprus chamber of commerce and industry (Keve) general manager Philokypros Rousounides told CNA that “internal processes” involving both Keve and the employers’ and industrialists’ federation (Oev) are underway.

“We have issued a statement outlining the framework in which [we say that] we wish the discussion and social dialogue to continue,” he said, before adding that the government’s plans for a gradual rise in the amount of CoLA payable should be “revisited”.

Asked if there has been a “new approach” from the government since Oev and Keve rejected their latest proposal last Wednesday, he said this has not yet happened, but that both Oev and Keve are “at the disposal of the state, whenever and as long as they want to talk about anything”.

He was then asked whether dialogue with trade unions and the government should start from the beginning and stressed that employers had rejected the government’s proposal “in its entirety”.

“We have rejected the framework in its entirety and not just parts of it. There may be points of convergence on which we can build so that mutual concessions [and] common components can be found,” he said.

Oev and Keve had described the government’s latest proposal as “unsatisfactory” and said that it “cannot be accepted and signed as it is”.

They added that a “catalyst” in their final decision to reject the proposal was a provision “which calls on employers to authorise the finance and labour ministers to implement measures to extend CoLA to more beneficiaries

Their rejection of the government’s proposal had come shortly after trade unions had accepted it, with Union of Cyprus journalists leader Giorgos Frangos saying workers had acquiesced to the government’s proposal “in a spirit of prudence, consensus, and reconciliation”.

Newspaper Politis had reported last week that the government had proposed a gradual increase in the amount of CoLA paid over the coming 20 months.

As such, in line with the government’s proposal, the amount of CoLA paid would rise from its current rate – 66.7 per cent of the rate of the increase of the cost of living as a percentage of a worker’s salary – to 80 per cent on January 1.

This would mean that if the cost of living increased by four per cent, workers will receive a boost of three per cent to their salaries in CoLA payments, rather than the current 2.68 per cent.

The government’s proposal would see that rate increase to 90 per cent on July 1 next year, and then to 100 per cent on January 1, 2027, with payments being made once a year during years in which Cyprus’ real gross domestic product increases.

Additionally, the proposal foresees the introduction of a ceiling of a four per cent increase in the cost of living as the maximum amount payable.

If the proposal is also accepted by employers’ organisations, it will bring to an end a bitter and longstanding dispute over the matter, which in September had seen workers engage in a three-hour general strike which saw the island brought to a standstill.

On that day, public services and public transport were the most affected, with more than 50 flights and 15,000 airline passengers impacted by the strike, while trade unionists across the island took to the streets.