The north’s ruling coalition on Friday morning took measures to order the postponement of strikes in essential services as Turkish Cypriot workers began a day-long general strike on Friday.

Workers at the ports of Famagusta and Kyrenia, air traffic controllers at Ercan (Tymbou) airport, employees of the police force, nurses, midwives, and employees of the north’s electricity authority Kib-Tek were all ordered back to work by decrees issued on Friday morning.

The ruling coalition said that had the strikes been allowed to go ahead, they would have “seriously disrupted essential services and caused disorder”.

Cyprus federation of workers’ and labourers’ unions (Kief) chairman Guven Bengihan described the ruling coalition’s decision as “an open attack, not only on the constitution, but also on democratic values”.

“We are faced with a mentality which issues banning orders instead of trying to compromise, which puts pressure on workers instead of engaging in dialogue, and which tries to silence us instead of producing solutions,” he said,

Workers across the north are on strike on Friday over the ruling coalition’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs by children at public schools.

The day is set to culminate with a protest march through the streets of northern Nicosia on Friday evening.

The general strike comes after teachers and their supporters had set the ruling coalition a deadline of April 28 to change the law back to how it was, lest their measures escalate, with that deadline having passed on Monday.

Earlier, 13,000 Turkish Cypriots had marched through the streets of northern Nicosia in opposition to the law, with fires having been lit in protest across the island in the meantime.