Nicosia, Cyprus. MPs and trade unions on Monday broadly welcomed government legislation that would count prior public-sector service when calculating employees’ annual leave. The bill was discussed at the House finance committee.
Proposed amendment
The bill would amend current civil service regulations governing annual leave for public-sector workers, whose entitlement currently increases according to years of service.
Under the proposed change, annual leave would be calculated based on years served in other public-sector posts, not only in the position to which a person was appointed and currently holds.
Impact on contract workers
Under the proposal, a person who had worked in the public sector on an open-ended contract and is later appointed as a civil servant would have those previous years of service counted toward annual leave.
The proposed amendment, however, does not include contract workers paid on an hourly basis. Trade unions said this affects around 600 people.
Issues raised by unions
A representative of Peo said the proposal might not include people who had previously worked in local government and were later transferred to the district local government organisations, or those moving from one semi-governmental organisation, such as CyTA, to another.
A finance ministry official said the planned change does include prior service in public-law organisations.
Political response
The government proposal received broad backing from political parties. Disy welcomed the changes and said the inclusion of hourly paid workers should be added to the bill.
