Unionists voiced their opposition on Thursday to the passage of amended labour regulations, charging that the state had satisfied all the demands of employers by bypassing substantial negotiation.

The council of ministers had approved a revised framework for the employment of third country nationals (TNCs) on Wednesday.

Additionally the cabinet had approved the raising of minimum wage for 19 professions, a move the minister had described as strengthening adequacy of wages for thousands of low-income employees, mainly from the domestic workforce.

Issues of greatest concern highlighted by the unionists were the permission granted to employers to move workers across company branches and districts, and the increase in wage reductions permitted for housing-included contracts.

Speaking on CyBC’s morning radio, General Secretary of PEO (the pancyprian labour union federation) Sotiroulla Charalambous, criticised the government for its preferential handling of employers’ demands, charging that the negotiation process had been superficial.

The right to move around third country workers raised concerns that it gave employers’ the ability to arbitrarily fire local workers who were seen to be at a disadvantage for being less mobile.

Additionally, the 25 per cent wage deduction with housing included for TCNs (previously capped at 10 per cent) was problematic in various ways, the union head argued.

Unions had expressed fears the measure could also be abused by taking away the right of workers to choose their own housing and decide for themselves what proportion of their wages they would rather keep.

Additionally, criteria for what constitutes “dignified” housing, although suggested by unionists and agreed upon with employers several months ago, currently lack a mechanism for effective oversight and enforcement, Charalambous said.

Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou, speaking on the same programme, countered the union’s points, saying that the movement of workers had no bearing whatsoever on the domestic workforce and that concerns were unfounded.

The right granted to employers could not be abused as the framework bars an employer from hiring a TCN if a local worker (Cypriot or EU national) had been fired from the same post during the previous year, he said.

Moreover, an employer who hired a TCN for work spanning several establishments of the same company, would have had to hire twice as many foreign workers if the flexibility to move the crew or team around was not in place.

As for the 25 per cent wage reduction with housing included, the minister said the 10 per cent allowance was an outdated legislation from 1991, which had to be adapted to the market’s current realities.

The minister added that the move would in fact improve living conditions for foreign workers through tighter regulation.

“The regulation of the labour market is constantly being strengthened,” the minister said, as witnessed by this government’s effective clampdown on undeclared work and the “ministry’s mechanisms for monitoring housing conditions” were on a sound course, he said.

Unionists had also claimed that collective agreements had not been boosted through the latest ministry outcomes, to match EU directives seeking to promote the tool of collective bargaining.

Panayiotou, for his part, responded that new collective agreements had been signed, such as for delivery drivers, and that collective agreements affecting large swathes of workers, which had previously been in an effective state suspension, had been renewed for long-term periods.

The numbers speak for themselves the minister said, with Cyprus’ need for workers expected to rise further, due to the island’s healthy economic growth. Domestic unemployment was at an all-time low of 5 per cent and fulltime domestic employment as high as 80 per cent, the minister reiterated.

New positions foreseen in budding technological applications were what had prompted President Nikos Christodoulides to embark on a policy of repatriation for Cypriots who had studied abroad but opted to remain in other countries, such as the UK, Panayiotou added.

Despite lower salaries, tax incentives are foreseen to entice these high-skilled Cypriot workers to return to their homeland, the minister said.