Filenews 3 February 2025
The Association of Pafos Leisure Centre Owners SIKAP has recently succeeded in concluding important labour agreements for the sector, stressed the president of SIKAP and Deputy Mayor of Pafos, Angelos Onisiforou.
The president of SIKAP pointed out in particular that in the last three years the industry has achieved many upgrades, but much remains to be done. The problem of finding staff was and remains one of the biggest, he stressed, but with the appropriate actions towards the competent ministry, we have achieved enough. While officials did not want to hear about workers from third countries, we managed as SIKAP and with the close cooperation of OSIKA, to be able to bring employees from third countries, he said. We are constantly pressuring the Ministry of Labour and from what I am informed, it is expected that the procedures will be simplified even more soon and the approval will now take place in 15 days.
It is expected, Mr Onisioforou continued, that the percentage of Community funds that each company has will increase to 70% to 80%, from the current 50%. An important success of the sector, he stressed, is the replacement of political refugees who left businesses with employees from third countries, while regarding third-country students, we have succeeded in working in all jobs and working hours are expected to increase during the winter season.
Regarding the licenses to be issued by the Pafos Municipality, the Deputy Mayor of Pafos announced that the plenary has decided that drink and music licenses should be issued every three years and not every year, but the issue must go to Parliament, as he clarified.
