Filenews 20 July 2025 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
The state may wish - and promotes - the implementation of teleworking in the public sector as soon as possible, but only 6% of public employees have a service laptop.
Therefore, the state will have to "run" to supply service computers to the workers, so that they can use them on the days they will work with the teleworking method.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, so far around 3,150 employees have service laptops, out of the total number of employees in the public sector, which are estimated at around 55,000.
Therefore, with these data, it is estimated that around 5.73% of employees own a laptop, but the state assures that it has the ability to quickly secure an additional number of such laptops to cover a larger number of employees.
Prior to this, relevant applications should be submitted by the competent services to the General Accounting Office, in order to provide employees with the necessary technological and accounting equipment, so that they can effectively perform their duties. Actions to connect the service laptop to the service phone (via the Cisco Jabber software) and the Office Automation System (eOASIS) should also be initiated. Also, a number of Microsoft 365 applications must be installed on each service laptop by the IT Services Department and the necessary security tools must be installed.
Financial Costs
From the economic impact analysis, this project (supply of laptops to staff who will be able to work from home) entails in the medium and long term with an impact on the state budget. This is due to the development of the appropriate technological infrastructure/systems by the Department of IT Services, the provision of the necessary equipment (laptops) by the ministries, deputy ministries and services, in order to provide to employees/employees who fall within the scope of the bill on teleworking.
There will also be costs from the procurement of electronic systems for recording the time of arrival and departure of employees, by ministries, deputy ministries and services that do not have such systems for the electronic submission of applications for telework.
Delay
The relevant bill, which was submitted by the Ministry of Finance last June to the Parliament, should be approved before the end of the year, so that the state can submit the relevant request for the disbursement of the 7th tranche from the Recovery Fund at the end of December.
It is recalled that flexible forms of employment are prerequisites for the implementation of the plan, with the Republic of Cyprus having committed to do so at the beginning of 2025. However, due to the complexity of the implementation of this reform and the various other actions that had to be taken, the promotion of the relevant measure was delayed.
As the Ministry of Finance points out, all the actions that preceded the preparation for the implementation of this reform, as well as the actions planned for its implementation, were aimed at avoiding, as far as possible, implementation problems and ensuring the proper functioning of the public service, given that this is a significant change in the way the public service operates.
According to the competent ministry, teleworking will contribute to the further development of digital solutions for the operation of the Public Sector, as well as to the development of employees' digital skills, to the enhancement of work incentives, to the balance of the professional and personal life of employees and to the formation of a more supportive working environment for employees with health problems or disabilities and in general, to improve the efficiency of employees. It is reminded that the number of days of employees who will work with teleworking has not yet been decided.
The maximum number of working days that they will be able to work with the teleworking method will be decided by the Council of Ministers. Teleworking will not apply to employees employed by the shift system. The Council of Ministers will be able to exclude other categories of workers from teleworking.
