President-elect Nicos Christodoulides won’t have much of a grace period when it comes to hot labour issues such as the demand by unions for full reinstatement of the Cost of Living Allowance (CoLA).
In late January, thousands of public and private sector workers across all sectors in Cyprus staged a paralyzing three-hour island-wide strike over CoLA and sent the message that was only the beginning.
The new government seems to have no choice but to go straight into the deep end on the issue of CoLA with Christodoulides’ Press Office coordinator Marilena Evangelou saying just before the presidential election: “The solution of this pending issue which is disrupting labour peace will be one of the priority issues for Nikos Christodoulides should the people give him the mandate to govern.”
She had added: “The starting point should be the gradual restoration of the CoLA within a time schedule that takes into account the course of the economy.”
She had also underlined the wish of Christodoulides for both sides to seek, through dialogue, a commonly accepted arrangement on the issue CoLA.
In a way that restores part of the purchasing power of employees without compromising the viability of businesses, she had added.
The gradual restoration of the institution seems to be the latest official position of Christodoulides who in the past had advocated for a gradual regulation of the issue, so that low wage earners could benefit more.