A 51-year-old man was arrested Thursday morning for allegedly damaging the windshields of five vehicles belonging to Social Welfare Services (SWS) employees, while the government promised a comprehensive solution to security going forward.

Police said the incident occurred outside the Agioi Anargyroi SWS office in Larnaca and is being investigated.

Later in the day, Deputy Minister of Social Welfare Klea Papaellina visited the premises of the SWS office, to reassure employees and pledging that the government would come up with “a comprehensive, rather than a piecemeal solution” to security.

She called the incident “very serious”.

The deputy minister added: “We’ve seen five cars in a row being damaged. It’s unacceptable, these are vehicles belonging to our personnel, and we’re here to tell them that we are all in this together.”

Papaellina said increasing, for example, guard duty at the premises by a few hours a day was not a solution.

But she did not get into specifics.

In response to the incident, the social services branch of the trade union Isotita announced a work stoppage outside the office from 11am to 1pm and called for greater protection for employees, noting that the incident “is not an isolated one.”

“For years now, employees of the Social Welfare Services have been facing incidents of aggression, threats, intimidation and violence,” the union said in a statement.

It added that the damage to employee vehicles was significant in this incident, as the alleged perpetrator was “smashing their windows with a metal bar”.

The union pointed out that meetings have been held and proposals have been submitted over workplace safety, but said measures were never fully implemented and “the issue of security remains essentially unresolved”.

It called on the director’s office of SWS and the deputy ministry of social welfare to immediately implement “specific, effective and fully functional security measures” at all offices, noting that some offices have malfunctioning or nonfunctioning security systems.

Isotita has previously called for improved security measures multiple times, including following SWS office break-ins in February and August last year.

It added that, in addition to social service employees, regular residents who visit the offices and security guards also face potential harm if security measures are not improved.