The whole industry is back to work, general secretary of the Peo union construction workers’ branch said on Wednesday.

He said that out of a total of 560 ready-mix concrete workers 480 had signed a deal with employers. These workers belong to 25 out of a total of 35 employers, he said. The 80 remaining workers were those who continued to work during the strike, according to the leader of Peo’s construction workers’ union Michalis Papanikolaou.

Meanwhile, Sek union leader Stelios Tsiapoutis confirmed that almost all of unionised-worker companies had signed the contract, and close to 90 per of concrete workers had returned to their jobs.

Efforts are being made to organise the smaller employers within the day, he said.

Eighty per cent of the ready-mix cement workers were already back at work early on Wednesday morning, Tsiapoutis had said.

This included all workers in the largest cement manufacturing companies, he told the CyBC.
Workers had decided on Tuesday to return to work as long as companies signed the new collective agreement, after some wrangling on part of the employers over the naming of the agreement.

Wording was altered from “branch [understood as trade]” agreement to “company” agreement, reflecting the fact that decisions would be made company-by-company on whether, or when, to sign.

Tsiapoutis said he had not yet been informed on the situation with workers at smaller companies and if they were prepared to restart.

The first to sign the much-debated agreement as a “symbolic gesture” was the concrete makers’ association chairman Costas Kythreotis.

Almost half the employer’s association had quit on Monday, including the chairman and other board members, leading to its dissolution.

It is unclear how correct implementation of the agreement will be enforced without the existence of an overarching employers’ association and how strike action will be able to continue by workers in smaller companies, who will likely be pressured to pick up tools.

Workers had met with trade unions on Monday after steps to renew the contentious collective agreement stumbled on employers’ refusal to accept a labour ministry mediation package.

The proposal for the agreements to be signed individually by employers was put forward by trade unions Sek, Peo and Deok.

Tsiapoutis had told the Cyprus Mail that workers would return as soon as employers signed and would continue their strike wherever employers refused to sign.

Deok’s Stelios Efstratiou said next steps wherever employers failed to sign were to be determined.
On Monday, the concrete makers’ association faced a wave of resignations, resulting in its dissolution.

he association had 30 companies under its umbrella of whom 22 had voted against the ministry proposal. The eight companies which had voted in favour, employ 70 per cent of workers.

Half the employers’ association members left and four of its nine board members walked out, due to their perceived failure to negotiate as demanded.

“We undertook a project regarding labour issues which we did not manage to implement according to the expectations of our members,” the resigning board members stated.

In the aftermath of the break-up, the board’s chair had said there was no reason for the association to exist and that it would be removed from the chamber of commerce (Keve) registry.