Workers at Larnaca Port are continuing their indefinite strike which began on Tuesday over differences with the port’s managing company Kition Ocean Holdings.
The trade unions representing the workers said that Kition Ocean Holdings, which took over the management of the port on April 1 2022, has started giving more work to its own employees, in violation of an agreement signed in 2017, leading as a result to reduced hours and pay for the port workers.
The managing company “insists on not implementing the agreement that has been in place as of March 2017,” Nadia Kyritsi, District Secretary of the PEO trade union in Larnaca, told Phileleftheros.
“If the company decides to respect the agreement, the port workers will return to their work,” Kyritsi added.
Panos Alexandrou, the founder of Kition Ocean Holdings, described the strike as illegal because, as he said, the law on port workers has not been applied and no notice about the strike had been given.
As he said the agreement cited by the port workers was between the port of Limassol and the Transport Ministry, and Kition Ocean Holdings was never a part of it.
A total of 26 port workers are participating in the strike.
Due to the strike, four ships are stuck at the port, three of which contain animal feed. If the strike continues for days, consequences will be huge, a representative of the Shipping Agents Association who spoke to Phileleftheros, said.
One of the affected ships is loaded with pipes from China and is one of the biggest cargoes ever to arrive in Cyprus, he added.
Riginos Tsanos, CEO of Lavar Shipping, the company that represents the cargo, said that currently, Cyprus gives the worst impression possible internationally, due to the strike.