Filenews 26 October 2024 - by Adamos Adamou
The underlying labour crisis in the hotel industry may culminate in strike action, although everyone's stated goal remains to ensure long-term labour peace.
Hotel workers' unions yesterday put the sector on strike. A development that means that what remains now is when strike measures will be implemented in the sector, on the occasion of the impasse that arose for the renewal of the collective agreement in the hotel industry, following the rejection by the trade union movement of the mediation proposal submitted by the Minister of Labor Yiannis Panagiotou.
Intensive contacts between the minister and the trade unions are expected to prevent the implementation of the strike measures, even over the weekend. Yiannis Panayiotou has already informed yesterday that on Saturday he will have a meeting in his office with representatives of the trade unions.
The proposal, which has been accepted by the hotel employers' associations PASYXE and STEK, was rejected on Monday by SYXKA PEO and the day before yesterday by OUXEKA SEK. Yesterday, the two unions decided to take strike measures as their next steps to handle the issue.
UXEKA SEK and SYXKA PEO said in a joint statement that "following the rejection of the mediation proposal of the Minister of Labour for the renewal of the collective agreement in the Hotel Industry, they decided today (yesterday) in a joint session to take measures throughout the sector throughout Cyprus". As of today 25/10/2024, they add in the announcement, "the Hotel Industry is under strike mode, as the wreck of the negotiations to date has led to a deadlock.
It should be noted that the ten-day notice period has elapsed since it existed from the day of submission of the mediation proposal, as previously agreed. Therefore, the trade union leaders call on all workers in the hotel industry to participate massively in the mobilizations when they are determined."
It is noted that the two unions rejected another mediation proposal of the Ministry of Labour, which led to the intervention of Yiannis Panagiotou in the dispute that led to the submission of a new proposal that had, however, the same fate.
Smells of gunpowder
It is surprising that yesterday's decision of the trade unions came a few hours after a new appeal indirectly but clearly made by the Minister of Labor to avoid measures due to the unstable situation in our neighbourhood.
Specifically, in statements yesterday morning on state radio, Yiannis Panayiotou, on the occasion of SEK's "no" to the proposal he submitted, reiterated the assessment that the differences for the renewal of the contract are not irreconcilable, reiterating that the golden mean can be found due to the responsibility of the social partners.
Despite the negative developments, he said, referring to the rejection of the proposal, I believe that through mutual responsibility we can manage in this difficult period when our neighbourhood smells of gunpowder, where there is an unstable situation inside, to manage to agree."
He also estimated that neither the impasse nor the taking of measures is an end in itself for anyone, reiterating that the goal remains to renew the contract in the sector and find a mutually acceptable approach.
In this context, he said that he will meet again with the trade unions, which, as we are informed, is not excluded even over the weekend, in order not only to avoid strikes but also not to send negative messages abroad, as tourist flows to the island continue.
Besides, any measures may affect not only tourism abroad but also domestic and various events in hotels such as weddings, balls, gala dinners, etc.
Thorn the retrospectives
The biggest thorn in the side for an agreement and the main reason for rejecting the proposal, as confirmed yesterday by the General Secretary of OUXEKA SEK, Michalis Frangou, is the non-payment of retroactive increases to employees, due to the good performance of tourism in recent years and especially in the last two years.
Speaking to CyBC, he said that this gap, namely the non-provision for retroactive increases from January 1, 2024, is the most serious problem and the controversial point. Therefore, the given intervention of the Minister of Labor to reach an agreement is not expected to be easy, as already on behalf of PASYXE, at least, it was mentioned that for the marginal acceptance of the last proposal, the Association exceeded its limits, making significant excesses.
