Filenews 5 December 2023 - by Adamos Adamou
Since December 1, the Ministry of Labor began accepting requests for the employment of foreign labour from the tourism industry, in an effort to address the problem of the lack of human resources, which continues to afflict the sector and was again at the center of the meeting that the leadership of PASYXE had with the President of the Republic on Monday.
The news of the submission of requests from this month, in order for the industry to be staffed on time, was announced in a relevant circular by the CCCI to its members, following information received by the employers' organizations by the Director General of the Ministry of Labour.
Specifically, the Department of Labour Relations, Social Policy & Human Resource Development of the CCCI informed that as of Friday, December 1, 2023, the Public Employment Service of the Department of Labour (District Labour Offices) of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance is accepting requests for the employment of staff for the tourist season 2024.
As stated by the Chamber, employers / companies active in the hotel and catering industry can notify job vacancies either through the online platform of the Public Employment Service (www.pescps.dl.mlsi.gov.cy), or by submitting a Notification Form to the addresses listed in the Job Vacancy Notification Form posted on the website of the Department of Labor (www.mlsi.gov.cy/dl).
The issue of staff shortages in the hotel industry was discussed on Monday at a new meeting that PASYXE's leadership had with the President of the Republic, in the presence of the Minister of Labor and the Deputy Minister of Tourism.
In statements after the meeting, Deputy Tourism Minister Costas Koumis said that it was the second meeting in two months with PASYXE, saying that "a wide range of issues were discussed, the labour issue, the air connection of our country and our own effort to extend the tourist season."
The deputy minister said that we are going through a very good year in tourism. "The increase in arrivals, compared to the previous year, amounts to 21%. At the same time, there is a good increase in revenues, of 25%, which looks like we will have a new revenue record, which is very important for our country's economy," he noted.
Replying to a relevant question, he said that the labour issue is an issue that concerns many tourism industries, not only the tourism industry of Cyprus. "It was the focus of today's meeting and I think we are on track to find several solutions," he said.
"The Ministry of Labor is in a phase of revising the existing strategy in order to make processes more friendly to hotel businesses," he added.
For his part, PASYXE President Thanos Michaelides described the meeting with President Christodoulides as constructive, welcoming "his continuous and direct involvement in finding solutions to the problems we face as a tourism industry."
He reiterated that the most important problem facing the industry is the lack of human resources. "It is a problem faced by all our competitive Mediterranean destinations. Taking into account the positive signals from the markets for 2024, there is an urgent need to provide solutions in a timely manner," he said, noting that if there is a delay, "there is a possibility that we will not be able to raise labour to meet our needs, because competitive destinations will have already absorbed it."
