[Cyprus Times] SYOP up to 42 years and with... law

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"Green" Parliament's recruitment, hierarchy and termination regulations for SYOPs Up to 42 years and with... By law

The House of Representatives passed regulations with respect to the recruitment, rank, promotion and termination of employment of Contract Petty Officers of the National Guard.

All 36 MPs present were in favour of the regulations. The purpose of the regulations is to repeal regulation 46 which allows Contract NCOs to apply for a new contract of employment for a period of 3 years on reaching their mandatory termination age or 57 years of age, after which they are entitled to apply for a new contract renewal until they reach 63 years of age.

Previously, the Parliament passed into law the bill concerning the amendment of the National Guard Law in order to grant the Minister of Defense the authority to establish a Security and Defense Academy for the purpose of training and education in the field of security and defense at the national, regional, European and international levels. The bill was supported by 31 MPs present.

The House also passed into law the bill to amend the National Guard Law to repeal its provision whereby the total duration of a Contracted Armed Forces Officer (CAF) contract is limited to ten years, regardless of the age at which they are recruited, and to allow them to remain in service until they reach the age of forty-two years. The 29 MPs present voted in favour of the bill.

Speaking during the plenary session on the issue of Contracted Petty Officers, Defence Committee Chairman Marinos Sizopoulos said that "the members of the Committee undertook a very serious obligation to regulate a very important issue that had huge implications if Contracted Petty Officers were to retire at the age of 57."

Speaking during the plenary session on the issue of Contracted Petty Officers, the Chairman of the Defence Committee, Marinos Sizopoulos, said that "the members of the Committee undertook a very serious obligation to regulate a very important issue that had huge implications if Contracted Petty Officers were to retire at the age of 57.

He said that the regulations provide for compulsory retirement at 57 years but at the same time, he said, if they request it, the Defence Minister has the power to make a renewal of three plus three years.

He added that several contract NCOs created their family prospects on the basis of the possibility of retirement at age 63.

Referring to some data, Mr. Sizopoulos said that "officers, graduates of the productive schools, up to the rank of Major cannot retire at 55 and Lieutenant Colonel at 57 and contracted Petty Officers at 63, while with regard to the second fact, he said that this is "the obligation of modernization of the staff of the AF on new data that are formed today."

"For this reason and from the point of view of the members of the Committee to agree on the issue of their retirement at 57 that there should be a financial satisfaction that these people are not wronged," he said, adding that finally with the decision of the Council of Ministers to give an additional lump sum 34.000 euros for any of them who will retire and the entire tip to be non-taxable is an important incentive."

Stating that a serious issue arises in the lump sum that each person will receive and the pension which starts from the day of retirement, at 57 years. Sizopoulos said that everyone must understand that "the lump sum as well as the pension is determined on the basis of the contributions that each person has made to the Social Security Fund."

He also said that upon retirement they will be able to get an additional 2.1 per cent of the contributions they have made to the Social Security Fund and any liabilities they may have to the Social Security Fund due to debts to the Fund will be replaced by the 2.1 per cent.

DISY MP Giorgos Karoullas said that "we have managed with our unanimous votes in the Defence Committee and with the cooperation of the Ministry of Defence to integrate equally and rationally the Contracted Petty Officers in the new pension plan" previously passed by the Parliament in relation to the public and wider public sector.

Mr. Karoullas said that as DISY and together with the Committee "we drew the lines which were alignment of the age limit of 57 years, like other non-commissioned officers, the possibility of replacing the non-commissioned officers with new SYOPs, but also decent compensation in the time horizon of 2039" and referred to the approval by the Legal Service of the special exit/compensation plan for these non-commissioned officers.

"This solution we have arrived at has zero fiscal cost and is an example of how to operate in this state," he added.

"We recognise that a number of 80 people, their pension and lump sum deviates from the average of the majority of Contracted Non-Commissioned Officers" and "they are the ones who have the minimum months of service but also low contributions to the Social Security Fund," he said.

Karoullas said this category should be looked at "with a positive eye if there is any other possibility to reduce this discrepancy always within the framework of the legislation and the budgetary framework."

AKEL MP Kostas Kostas said it was in March 2017 that the new regulations for NCOs were tabled, adding that "if he wants, the Defence Minister gives the 3 plus 3 years".

He also said that contract NCOs "arranged their jobs, their loans and their children's education based on" retirement at the age of 63, adding that "the Chairman and members of the Defence Committee over the last two weeks have had very bad days with a lot of pressure and under pressure and with some people who have infected us."

He also said that the Committee stood and pushed the Treasury very hard to come up with a plan, which although not the best, is "too good to be able to immediately give some money to these people and a pension right away and see what can be done down the road."

"And that's because the chief of the NF came to us and said I can't operate with people who will be 60 to 63 years old and we need to get new blood," he added."

He also said that not everyone will be retired immediately but "every year 10-15 people will be retired.

ELAM President Christos Christou said that what will be voted for was not what was proposed from the beginning, adding that "it is after a lot of effort and pressure that we managed to convince the Ministry of Finance that they should give these people a decent amount so that they can retire and then provide for their families."

"I would like to believe that the problems that are likely to arise are also not for all the SYPs, but for some of these people," he said, adding that these will be looked into afterwards and "we will find a way to bring them back if and when necessary so that we don't leave them exposed."

DPA - Co-operation MP Alekos Tryfonidis said that "the Parliament today gives the Chief of Defence Staff and the Ministry of Defence the opportunity to increase and develop the operational readiness of our troops", adding that although they are aged 57 and 60, "too many of them were staffing important posts in our weapon systems".

He said that "we had a difficult time (as the Defence Commission) because the Ministry of Finance went to close the spigot" and added that "with a lot of efforts by all of us, the lump sum was settled by a decision of the Council of Ministers, plus the 34,000 euros and plus the 2.1 per cent that will go to the Social Security Fund".

"We find that for the first to leave by 2025-26, there will be an injustice because 70-80 people leave immediately and get a very small pension," he said, adding that "it will not be a big cost to give something additional."

MP of the Ecologists' Movement - Citizens' Cooperation Alexandra Attalidou said that "there are 471 female non-commissioned officers for whom one of the most important rights, the right to equality, has been violated by the AF for years, and they have been waiting for so many years and almost every Sunday they are outside the Presidential Palace demonstrating for their rights."

He said the report of the Commissioner of Administration is "damning and we look forward to when a correction will actually be made for this blatant violation of the rights of these women," adding that these women did not get tenure at the time they should have, they did not get the increments they should have and they did not even get the rank they should have because they were women."

"The Defence Committee and the House must persist until the rights of these women are restored," he concluded.

Responding to Attalidou, the Chairman of the Defence Committee said that "whatever dispute there is has no racial origin at all", adding that "it is certain regimes that existed in the AF that need regulation", noting that the Defence Committee cannot take up the matter, which has been referred to the Human Rights Committee for discussion.

Source: CNA

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