The vision of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance is to achieve full and quality employment, to ensure fair and decent wages and pensions, the safety and health of all workers and the safeguarding of industrial peace, Minister of Labour and Social Insurance, Kyriakos Kousios, stressed, speaking before the Finance Committee of the Parliament, which examined the Ministry's budget for 2023, which shows an increase of 6.5% compared to that of 2021, as well as the Medium Term Fiscal Framework 2023 - 2025.
At the same time, Kousios stressed the essential importance of digitizing the services of the Ministry of Labour, adding that "if we do not digitize our services, we will continue to face serious problems. The aim is to continue as quickly as possible," he stressed.
Furthermore, Kousios announced that a decision has been taken by the Ministry of Labour and a proposal will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval "for immediate payment of 70% in cases of unemployment and maternity benefits" and "at the same time, changes in the software to make these payments have been wheeled out". He expressed hope that this decision will be implemented before the end of 2022.
Regarding the budget of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, it amounts to €621 million, €692 million and €720 million respectively, compared to the corresponding budget of €583 million in 2022. These amounts do not include expenditure on co-financed projects from the European Social Fund.
The Labour Minister said that €182 million of the 2023 budget is for social benefits, while the budgeted expenditure of the Social Security Fund, the Central Licensing Fund, the Surplus Personnel Fund and the Employer Insolvency Fund for the year 2023 is €2.2 billion. He noted that the budget implementation rate for 2022 is expected to be 96%, similar to that of the budget for 2021.
He added that the total budget of the Ministry of Labour for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, including expenditure on co-financed projects, amounts to €657 million, €716 million and €742 million respectively, compared to the corresponding budget of €607 million in 2022.
Kousios stressed that "an essential issue for the Ministry of Labour is the digitisation of the Ministry", noting that "the software system has been operating since 1995 and cannot meet today's needs, hence the many delays".
He added that for this purpose he has visited Austria and has agreed with the Minister of Labour and the Austrian Minister of Finance to cooperate with them with a state company, which undertakes the creation of software for the Austrian state and it is expected that within the first 15 days of December a team from the company will visit us to assess our needs and an offer will be made to us to contract with them to have a new software system implemented and operational as soon as possible.
On this point, Kousios said that "almost all benefits and all applications are entered digitally and it is expected that in 2022 we will have about 250,000 applications in total", which means that "we receive about 1,500 applications per day".
"With the process of simplifying the examination that we have implemented, the times for the examination of applications and the payment of benefits have been significantly reduced and we have now reached 56,000 applications" under examination, from 67,000 previously, he said , adding that "applications submitted in September 2022 are now being examined.
Call centre
The Labour Minister said a tender had been awarded for the operation of a citizens' call centre and "it is expected to be operational by 15 December", adding that the delay was due to the fact that we first had to "listen to the advice of the Data Protection Commissioner".
He also referred to the implementation of the National Minimum Wage, saying that 80,000 workers will benefit from it, of which 40,000 will benefit beyond €50 and cases will benefit €250-270, while in relation to the actuarial reduction of pensions by 12%, Mr. Kousios said that it is not the Government that introduced this measure and added that there are laws passed by Parliament and regulations for retirement at age 65, noting that several countries are moving to increase the retirement age to 67, such as England and Belgium, among others.
Zeta Emilianidou's legacy
Referring to the legacy left by the late former Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou, Mr. Kousios said that this is the establishment of the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare, the implementation of the Minimum Guaranteed Income, the Baby Dowry Plan, the widow's pension and for men, the leave and paternity allowance, the extension of maternity leave and allowance, the Free Holiday Scheme for low pensioners, the "New Disability Assessment System", housing and supported living schemes and the Family Intervention and Support Centre for Autism.
He also reported that on July 8, 2021, the State Ministry of Social Welfare was established and the Social Welfare Services were transferred to the State Ministry; on January 1, 2022, the Welfare Benefit Administration Service was transferred from the Ministry of Labour to the State Ministry of Social Welfare; and on January 1, 2023, the Department of Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities will be transferred from the Ministry of Labour to the State Ministry of Social Welfare.
Referring to the specific challenges, new policies and strategic priorities of the Ministry for the period 2023 - 2025, Mr. Kousios said that these are ensuring high employability of citizens, the review and revision of the Strategy for the Employment of Foreigners from Third Countries in force since 2007, the reform and modernization of the Social Security System (in cooperation with the International Labour Office ILO), the reform of the pension system (ILO), the legislative regulation of teleworking, the effective treatment of undeclared work (ERGANI I and II), the promotion of safe, healthy conditions and practices in the workplace, the digital transformation of departments and services of the Ministry, the simplification of the process of assessing applications for benefits, grants and permits, the increase of operational effectiveness and efficiency of the departments and services of the Ministry (Austrian Social Security System), the establishment of a Call Centre for citizen services and the promotion of the implementation of Demographic Policies as defined in the National Plan and as approved by the Council of Ministers.
In the context of the National Plan "Cyprus_Tomorrow", Mr Koussios said that for this Plan projects of €170 million are budgeted. for the next five years and added that the Ministry of Labour "sets as a primary objective for 2023-2025 the implementation of policies and projects included in the theme of the 5th axis (developing skills and competences to enable the workforce to meet the demands and trends of the modern labour market, including those arising from the green and digital transition)".
With regard to the employment of workers from third countries, Mr. Kousios said that while in 2017 it stood at 15.46% and concerned 10,616 undeclared workers, "today it has decreased to 5.62% and concerns only 795 undeclared workers."
He also said that in 2022 401 administrative fines were imposed, involving a total amount of €1,225,900.
Employment of Turkish Cypriots
The Labour Minister said that the implementation of the training programme for Turkish Cypriots to join the labour market was proceeding rapidly, adding that a technical committee had been set up on this issue and "very soon we will have results".
With regard to important policies, reforms and projects implemented in 2022, the Labour Minister said that these included the National Minimum Wage, the One-off Six Monthly Honorary Allowance Scheme for prisoners of war, civilians, war veterans and disabled persons, the sickness allowance for persons who continue to work beyond the age of 63, the Digital Transformation of Departments and Services of the Ministry, the Parental Leave Harmonisation Bill, the National Disability Action Plan, the Disabled Persons' Holiday Allowance Scheme and the termination of reassessments of children with disabilities who are eligible for disability benefits until they reach adulthood.
Regarding the Inspections Service, Mr. Kousios said that the Service conducts over 6,000 inspections annually and meets with approximately 15,000 workers and noted that the undeclared work rate in 2009 was 27%, in 2017 with the establishment of the Inspections Service it was 15% and in 2021 it was further reduced to 10% and "the target is within the next 5 years to reduce the undeclared work rate to 5%".
In comparison, the Labour Minister said that in 2009 the number of inspections was 2,568 involving 8,850 workers, while the rate of undeclared workers was 24.73% and today (2022) the number of inspections was 5.732 involving 14,158 workers, while the percentage of undeclared workers decreased to 5.62%.
He noted that "in the last five years, work accidents have decreased significantly" with the decrease amounting to 6.8%.
"We see that both employers and employees are now taking occupational safety and health seriously," he added.
Speaking at the meeting, Committee Chairperson ,Christiana Erotokritou, welcomed the creation of 15 new posts for the Social Security Department and referred to the importance of implementing the three-year plan, while noting the need for an individualised and socially sensitive approach with regard to the 12% proportional reduction of the pension for early retirement at age 63.
DISY MP Onoufrios Koulla said that "a lot has been done in recent years in the direction of rationalisation and the strengthening of the welfare state in our country", while he congratulated the Minister because in a very short period of time, he said, "he has done so much and especially the issue concerning the National Minimum Wage has been closed".
He also said that the honorary allowance is also important and wondered why it took so many years to support these people who are mostly on low incomes and pensions.
Koullas congratulated the Minister for closing the issues concerning the sickness allowance and parental leave and "for adopting requests of the political forces."
"We have instituted all these new benefits" including the men's widow's pension, the allowance and paternity leave, he said, while highlighting the much higher volume of applications borne by Labour Ministry employees.
He also said that "all that has been done over the years is without imposing new contributions and new taxes", adding that "this was possible because of prudent policy and development strategy".
Moreover, AKEL MP Andreas Kavkalias said that "zeroing out is not a beneficial approach, but embellishing situations as the DISY parliamentary group does is certainly the wrong approach", adding that the embellishment of situations has also been done by the Finance Minister on the first day of the budgets, referring to a sharp improvement in social cohesion indicators in 2021 and 2022".
He said that according to the Statistical Office, "more than 20,000 young people are in complete inactivity" and added that from 56% the share of wages in national income has been reduced to 46%, while income from profits has increased from 45% to 58%.
Furthermore, he said that "while inflation is nibbling away at one-tenth of workers' incomes, the government is backtracking on the ATA issue, positioning itself against the abolition of the 12 per cent penalty on pensions and failing or refusing to take measures to support households to address poverty."
"It also refuses to discuss an increase in the level of the EEU allowance, which was set in 2014 at €480 for singles, and reduces the EEU budget by €15m in 2023, which is a challenge for society," he added. Kafkalias also said that "those in power over the years have limited themselves to the bare minimum to support society, with vulnerable groups of the population under the greatest pressure," adding that "ten years later and what is being recorded is the huge delays in the examination and payment of the EEU, the low pensioner's allowance and the Social Security Fund benefits and pensions, the unfulfilled commitments of those in power to create independent legislation for people with disabilities consistent with the principles of the UN Convention, their unfulfilled commitments to modernise important legislation such as the Children's Act, the Old People's Homes Act and the Adoption Act, and their unfulfilled commitments to modernise Social Welfare Services.
EDEK MP Andreas Apostolou thanked the leadership of the Ministry for the fruitful dialogue on parental leave and the decision of the Council of Ministers not to reassess minors with disabilities.
PPP MP, Marinos Mousiuttas, congratulated the Minister and the late Zeta, as he said, "for the effort being made to improve", adding that "we recognise that steps are being taken in the right direction", even if some want more.
The President of the Movement of Ecological Citizens' Partnership, Haralambos Theopeptou, referred to the need to revise the list of professions in the electronic system of the Ministry and added that from an audit he made it was about 20 years behind.
He also referred to the need for the Ministry to make appeals, as is done in Europe, to people who have completed school or university and will not go to study to register as unemployed and added that the reason for this is to know at all times what is happening in the country and where the unemployment rate is.
Source: CNA
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