A senior Paphos municipality official who reported suspended mayor Phedon Phedonos to police has been reinstated for the second time after the Administrative Court ruled her dismissal unlawful — and is now entitled to 2.5 years’ worth of back pay.
Katia Konstantinidou, a senior municipal service officer, returned to her post on Tuesday after Judge Ariadni Zervou ruled on Monday that her dismissal on 23 May 2024 had been unlawful, handing her a second consecutive vindication before the same court.
Konstantinidou had filed a four-count police complaint in April 2022 against Phedonos and former municipal secretary Themis Filippidis, alleging workplace bullying, repeated psychological violence, physical violence by the mayor, and potential criminal offences and corruption by both officials.
Phileleftheros had previously revealed the complaint. The police file was handed to the Attorney General on 13 January.
The court accepted the fourth ground of her appeal, finding that the impartiality principle had been violated in the composition of the Municipal Council that voted on her dismissal.
Judge Zervou concluded that neither the mayor nor the municipal secretary should have participated in the evaluation process that led to her termination, given the outstanding police complaints she had filed against them.
The court noted that the Municipal Council had never investigated the outcome of those complaints — neither when it first voted to end her probationary appointment nor when it reviewed that decision.
The council had confined itself to referring to case law on strained working relationships without conducting any further inquiry or putting the matter to the mayor or municipal secretary.
It was Konstantinidou’s second unlawful dismissal. Her first, in May 2022, was overturned by the Administrative Court on 19 December 2022 on the grounds of procedural irregularity in the keeping of minutes by the municipality’s legal adviser.
The 2.5 years’ compensation covers the combined period during which she lost her salary entitlements as a result of both unlawful dismissals.
Konstantinidou was represented by lawyer Xenia Evgeniou of Andreas S. Angelidis LLC.
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