Union rule is alive and well in Cyprus. The overwhelming majority of our politicians, be they lawmakers or government ministers, will always go out of their way to keep the union bosses happy. Deputies always defer to the unions about bills being discussed at committee level and if they do not secure approval, they either send the bill back to the government to make changes, or they let it gather dust on shelf. Ministers usually make some changes to the bill – not because these are necessary – in the hope the union bosses would lift their objections so that deputies could forward it to the plenum for approval.

This ugly, undemocratic scenario by which a couple of union bosses, who represent the financial interests of a couple of thousand workers, dictate to elected representatives and the government the policy they must follow, has been illustrated in the way they have blocked government efforts to tackle the acute shortage of nurses. For months now, private hospitals have been complaining about the shortage of nurses, which has caused serious operational problems. Some have been told to close down clinics because they do not have the number of nurses stipulated by the law.

As a solution, the health ministry decided to allow the employment of third country nationals who have obtained nursing degrees from Cyprus universities and colleges, by removing the provision that they should also possess a master’s degree. Cypriot nurses do not require a master’s degree. Although the bill has provision for foreign nurses to have an ‘average’ knowledge of Greek, the public sector unions – Pasyno and Pasydy – insist that ‘very good’ knowledge should be a condition for employment. This would make the employment of foreign nurses impossible. They are also demanding that employment of nurses in private hospitals be governed by collective agreements, which they have no legal right to impose on private hospitals.

Such was the pressure from the unions, deputies decided not to discuss the bill at the House health committee, which would mean it would not go to the plenum for approval before the new parliament sits in June and some private hospitals would have to close parts of their operation. After pressure from the hospitals association the bill was put on the agenda of the committee that was meeting on Thursday, but union objections remained after a meeting at the health ministry, so the bill was not discussed. Unions have been allowed by the political parties to block the bill regardless of the fact that hospital care would be undermined and patients would suffer.

This is a disgrace and makes a mockery of our democracy. Were deputies elected to protect the interests of union members at the expense of the people who voted for them? And why is the government not calling out this behaviour which threatens hospital care? Are they all resigned to live under the union dictatorship?