An improved government proposal aimed at resolving the ongoing dispute with hourly-paid public sector workers will be put before employees for a decision, unions said on Monday following a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides.

Finance Minister Makis Keravnos said the proposal presented at the presidential palace was an improvement on the one discussed at the previous meeting, expressing hope that an agreement could now be reached.

“The government understands the demands,” Keravnos said after the meeting, attended by representatives of SEK, PEO and Deok.

He said the new proposal would be submitted to the unions’ competent bodies.

“I hope and expect that there will be a conclusion,” he said.

Keravnos declined to disclose the contents of the proposal or say whether it provides for pay increases.

Asked whether the unions had given any indication of how they viewed the offer, he said only that cooperation between the two sides had traditionally been “excellent” and based on mutual understanding.

He was also asked what mechanism would be used to resolve the labour dispute should the talks reach an impasse.

“When there are differences, the discussion continues,” he said.

“We have, I think, a tradition in this country of dialogue with the social partners. This government supports and strengthens social dialogue, and that is what we will do.”

Union representatives confirmed that the new offer was an improvement on previous proposals and said the final decision would rest with the workers.

Unions’ next steps

PEO representative Stavros Andreou described the meeting as constructive and said the proposal would be presented to a workers’ assembly to determine the union’s next steps.

Asked whether the unions were satisfied, Andreou said the offer was “clearly improved” compared with previous proposals.

“We feel good about putting it before the workers for discussion,” he said, adding that it satisfied workers’ demands “to some extent”.

“If we were rejecting it from the outset, we would not be putting it before the workers in the first place,” he said.

“We therefore believe that, through discussion with the workers, we can have a good result.”

SEK’s Giorgos Constantinou also spoke of “a new, improved proposal compared with what had been put forward in the previous period”.

Asked for his own assessment of the offer, Constantinou declined to elaborate, saying it would be put before the workers, who would decide how to proceed.

Deok’s Andreas Antoniou said the proposal had been improved, the union could take it to its competent bodies and “support it”.

“Since we are now in a process which we want to succeed, I think we must respect the process, because the aim is to reach an agreement and for everyone to be satisfied,” he said.