Nicosia, Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot employees at the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) called off a planned strike on Monday after receiving back pay shortly before the action was due to begin.
Strike threat and payment dispute
The 50 employees belong to the Ktams trade union, which represents civil servants in the north. They had threatened to stop working, saying they had not been paid for 46 days.
A group of employees staged a protest outside the ‘finance ministry’ building.
Union allegations
Ktams head Guven Bengihan accused the north’s ‘finance minister’, Ozdemir Berova, of having “impeded” approval of the wages. Bengihan described this as a “political stance”, and said the CMP’s 50 Turkish Cypriot employees have been working on a contract basis for 20 years without the attendant benefits.
Bengihan also criticised the Turkish Cypriot member of the CMP, Hakki Muftuzade, for indifference.
About the CMP
The CMP is a bi-communal body established in 1981 by the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities with the participation of the United Nations.
Following the establishment of an agreed list of missing persons, the CMP’s objective is to recover, identify, and return to their families the remains of 2002 persons, including 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during 1963 to 1964 and 1974, as well as during the intervening period.
What steps do you think should be taken to prevent future pay delays for CMP employees?