Nicosia, Cyprus. The north’s ruling coalition on Tuesday issued a decree stating Turkish Cypriot public sector workers will not be paid the cost-of-living allowance until next year at the earliest after this month. The move came hours after the coalition failed to pass a bill to implement the change through the Turkish Cypriot legislature.
Legislative session and strike action
The legislature sat from Monday afternoon until the early hours of Tuesday morning as Turkish Cypriots held a general strike on Monday, blocking key roads through northern Nicosia and gathering at the legislature building in large numbers.
During the proceedings, 62 trade unions and civil society organisations said they intended to extend the general strike into Tuesday and again march on the legislature.
Adjournment and planned talks
When ‘parliament speaker’ Ziya Ozturkler adjourned the session in the early hours of Tuesday morning without the bill being put to a vote, he announced the legislature would not sit on Tuesday to allow talks on the future of the cost-of-living allowance to proceed.
The unions then said they were willing to engage in talks with the coalition and cancelled the strike and march planned for Tuesday.
Coalition decree and minister’s comments
At midday on Tuesday, the coalition issued the decree. ‘Labour minister’ Oguzhan Hasipoglu appeared on the north’s public broadcaster BRT to defend the decision, saying the legislative process would have taken too much time, with Tuesday being the last day of the month.
“There are 11 bills. The opposition party’s MPs requested to speak on all of them. If it were to be like this, the sitting would have continued until Wednesday or Thursday. From a financial and technical standpoint, it should have been implemented today,” he said.
Hasipoglu said the issue “will not remain a matter of a decree”, adding that “bills will be passed” and that “discussions will continue in parliament next Monday”.
He also said that without action to cut the cost-of-living allowance, deeper problems would have emerged. “If we had not taken precautions during this crisis, if the government had not had this foresight, we would have fallen into the same mistake that the CTP made years ago, and we would have been unable to pay salaries. We have not forgotten those days. As of now, no one’s pocket has been touched,” he said.
How do you think the planned talks should address the future of the cost-of-living allowance?
