Education Minister urges talks, not strike, to resolve dispute involving about 950 workers
Athena Michaelidou says the government has backed nearly all demands of the affected staff and that two issues remain open, while she defends planned changes to teacher appointments.
Nicosia, Cyprus. Education Minister Athena Michaelidou said on Monday that a dispute affecting about 950 workers, among them support personnel and employees on short-term contracts, should be settled through dialogue and not through strike action. She also defended proposed changes to the teacher appointment system, which unions oppose.
Appeal for negotiations
Michaelidou spoke after a session of the House human rights committee. Referring to the indefinite strike begun by the workers concerned, she said solutions had to be reached through negotiation and discussion with other bodies, among them the finance ministry and the labour ministry.
Government’s record
The minister said the government had backed almost all of the workers’ demands over the last three years. In that period, many of them moved from arrangements under which their services were purchased to salaried posts, and later to indefinite-term contracts. Some staff are still on fixed-term contracts, she noted.
Two outstanding issues
The first issue is unemployment benefit for indefinite-term staff, who are excluded from it under the rules covering the wider public sector. Michaelidou said the ministry was seeking possible solutions with the finance ministry and described the matter as one of finance and law: “This is purely a financial and legal issue.” She added that permanent secretaries were meeting at the finance ministry on Monday to discuss it.
The second issue is work opportunities for fixed-term employees as well as for those with indefinite-term contracts. Michaelidou said every indefinite-term employee was currently working and being paid under the programmes. Fixed-term employees, she said, can apply through the relevant legal procedures to be included in the registers of the ministry’s programmes.
She concluded: “We are therefore not opposed to their demands.”
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