The Commissioner for Administration and Human Rights, Maria Stylianou Lottides, is intervening over a complaint by an employee of the Limassol District Local Government Organisation who claims he was overlooked in a promotion process due to disability.
The commissioner’s office sent a letter to Limassol PSO two weeks ago requesting the organisation’s position and response regarding the allegations against it.
The complainant is an official of the former Limassol Water Board, which now falls under the PSO, who submitted a complaint last October through his lawyer, Giorgos Karapatakis.
As Phileleftheros reported (16/10/25), referring to his client’s treatment, Karapatakis spoke of “prohibited discrimination” that is “glaring”.
He cited national and international legislation, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and practices followed by the Cyprus Police and National Guard.
Karapatakis’s positions and concerns regarding the violation of his client’s rights appear to concern the Commissioner’s office. The legislation protecting the rights of persons with disabilities is not being disregarded.
In the letter requesting the PSO to justify its decisions, the following is indicated: “Please ensure that your response takes into account, firstly, the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability in relation to all matters concerning all forms of employment, including career advancement (Article 27 (1) (a) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and secondly, the employer’s obligation to ensure the provision of reasonable accommodation to persons with disabilities in the workplace (Article 27 (1) (i) of the Convention), without such provision being to the detriment of the person receiving it”.
In her letter, the commissioner calls on the PSO to respond within four weeks, by mid-December. In the same letter, the commissioner’s office summarises the complainant’s positions.
It notes, among other things: “Specifically, as stated in the complaint, the complainant, who is a father of three children, was appointed to the Water Board in 2011 as an hourly paid worker. Subsequently, in 2012, he underwent surgery due to problems with his spine.
“However, the surgery caused him serious mobility problems, resulting in him becoming a person with severe mobility disability. Given his condition, since 2013 the complainant has worked in the position of office assistant. Despite the serious mobility problems he faces, the complainant does not use a wheelchair and travels to his workplace in his motor vehicle. On or around 13 May 2024, the Water Board decided to promote two hourly paid workers who were appointed together with the complainant to the position of craftsman, whilst ruling that the complainant cannot be promoted due to disability, thereby denying him the right to career advancement”.
The following dimension is also raised: “In his reply dated 19 March 2025, the President of Limassol PSO informed KYSOA that the Water Board’s decision to deny the complainant promotion cannot be modified or annulled, as Limassol PSO cannot intervene and/or overturn and/or annul the decision of another Council, especially when it has now been abolished. Challenging this position of Limassol PSO, Mr Karapatakis counters that at the stage of taking the Water Board’s decision, the then Director of the body, Mr Sokratis Metaxas, participated, who currently holds the position of General Director of the Organisation, with duties including handling promotion matters for employees in Limassol Water Supply”.