The conference of the OIO-SEK, which was attended and addressed by the Minister of Finance, Konstantinos Petridis, and the Minister of Interior, Nikos Nouris, was dominated by the issues of the difficult economic situation, the reform of local government, the huge problem of immigration, housing policy, labour relations, the ATA and tax reform.
At the conference, all speakers made special reference to the late Minister of Labour, Zeta Emilianidou, and her great contribution and contribution to the labour events of the country. A specific reference was made by the Secretary General of the FCC, Andreas Matsas, who called on employers to accept the parameters set by Zeta Emilianidou for the level of the National Minimum Wage and for the determination of its Adjustment Mechanism.
The Finance Minister stated that "we are entering a new era of uncertainty, the only certainty for the future is uncertainty", noting that for this reason, if seriousness is not maintained both on the part of the unions and on the part of the Government and employers, we will enter into very big adventures.
The Interior Minister, among other things, referring to the migration, said that 85% to 90% of those who enter the Republic of Cyprus are not political refugees, but economic migrants. At the same time, he denounced that Turkey is behind the problem, referring to a very dangerous hybrid threat.
In his speech,
SBC Secretary General Andreas Matsas
, among other things, asked the Finance Minister to convene the Economic Advisory Committee to discuss tax reform with a focus on green growth.
He also stressed the need to protect and restore the ATA and to strengthen housing policy. He also asserted that the FCC will judge harshly and resist those who would undermine the Recovery and Resilience Plan
Matsas called on the Minister of Interior to finally put an end to the unthinkable numbers of asylum seekers that now exceed 5% of the population and the presence of illegal aliens in our country, which exceeds 20%.
The General Secretary of the OIO-SEK, Andreas Ilias, said in his speech that the OIO is moving from defending labour gains to a dynamic phase of claiming everything that successive crises have deprived workers of.
He said, among other things, that the OIO-SEC and its constituent guilds are determined to continue to work methodically in safeguarding the economic and social balance in the country, adding that the improvement of wages and benefits is being assessed on a continuous basis and will be pursued since it is considered necessary in order to reverse the widening inequality in the correlation between wages and profits.
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr. Ilia expressed the determination of the Guild to defend the agreed evolution of the Health Funds in the Semi-State Organizations and Local Authorities, so that they operate in a complementary manner to the YESY.
On the issue of local government reform, Mr. Elias called on all stakeholders to make use of the interim period until June 2024, the date when the reform will be implemented, in order for it to start properly, from the beginning. It would be a mistake, he said, if the right foundations are not laid and the reform is discredited in the minds of the citizens because not everything that needs to be done in the narrow, interim period until June 2024 has been done.
The General Secretary of the OIO-SEC also referred to the issues of permanent employees, the purchase of services, the Welfare Funds, the agreement on the RIK and teleworking, which, he noted, should be regulated by an agreed general legislative framework but also by additional agreed contracts with the unions, where all the individual parameters of teleworkers will be specified, depending on the specificities of each organization.
In the "Resolutions of the 14th Pancyprian Congress of the OIO-CEC", the delegates authorized their leadership to negotiate and manage the continuing for at least a decade ongoing hardship faced by the workers, mainly with reductions in the value of their salaries, which creates widening inequality in the correlation of wages with profits. They reiterated their determination to seek an improvement in the economic position of workers by claiming their fair share of the wealth generated by the economy.
The delegates reiterated their declared opposition to the privatisation of semi-governmental organisations. They also highlighted the fact that the functional improvement they had for the benefit of the economy and the country, even in difficult times, had a catalytic effect in marginalising any discussions on privatisation. They also called for further independence and improvement of their operation and efficiency, with well thought out and agreed actions based on the specificities of each organisation.
The delegates welcomed the agreement to establish and operate the new pension scheme for the public and wider public sector. They called on the State to act in such a way that the "Special Fund", which will be created and into which the mutual contributions will be deposited, will evolve into a robust pension institution that will ensure its long-term credibility. They noted that the establishment, and the participation of the OIO-SEC, as well as the other major trade unions in the country, in the Monitoring Committee for the operation of the Fund, aims to safeguard the financial and operational independence of the Fund.
The delegates also welcomed the adoption of the laws on the reform of local government. At the same time, they called on all stakeholders to make use of the interim period until June 2024, the date of implementation of the reform, in order to start it properly, from the beginning. It would be a mistake, they stressed, not to lay the right foundations and for the reform to be discredited in the minds of citizens because not everything that needs to be done in the interim period until June 2024 has been done. They also call on the Ministry of Interior to activate the mechanism for discussing labour issues arising from the reform, which is included in the March 2020 agreement between us.
The delegates demanded that the launch and implementation of General Labour Issues discussed in the framework of the tripartite cooperation and the Labour Advisory Board be promoted. The implementation of a National Minimum Wage and the incorporation of improvements and changes in the Social Security Pension Plan that will include the regulation of the 12% actuarial reduction are issues on which the dialogue has been exhausted and only a policy decision remains to regulate them.
The delegates expressed their opposition to service market processes that degrade labour supply and workers, since they consider it unacceptable that labour desperation is an alibi for hiring out services on degrading wage conditions. They also expressed their concern and identified their position with the rest of society for the preservation and improvement of the GHS to meet the current and future needs of the citizens of the country.
They also welcomed the progress in the regulation of the general conditions of employment for permanent workers, noting that their inclusion in the new Pension Plan is also a positive development.
Finally, the delegates expressed their concern about the strong inflationary pressures and accuracy affecting consumers, which reduces the value of wages and the purchasing power of households.
In the context of the 14th Pancyprian Congress, the new General Secretariat of the OHO-CEC was elected, which is as follows: Andreas Elias Elias General Secretary, Elias Demetriou Deputy General Secretary, Prokopis Prokopiou Treasurer, Christos Pelekanos General Organizer and Savvas Aristodimou Member/Councillor.
Source: CNA
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