Eggs were thrown at the north’s ‘deputy prime minister’ Fikri Ataoglu’s office and halloumi water was poured onto the ground in front of it as employees of the north’s Koop Bank and its subsidiaries continued their strike on Tuesday.

The workers are demanding the company formally distance itself from a reported eight-item list of austerity measures which is to be imposed on workers, including that those receiving a pension stop work, the 13th salary be abolished, the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA) not be paid, and that Eid bonuses be cut in half.

In addition, workers are protesting reported plans for 44 of them to be laid off.

Koop Bank is one of the largest employers in the north, and as well as a bank, operates Seker Insurance, dairy company Koop Sut, and the Binboga animal feed factory, among other companies.

Outside Ataoglu’s office, trade union Koop-Sen leader Mehmetali Guroz said his union has been “unable to find anyone in the government to talk to”, while also claiming that members of the north’s ruling coalition have made “attempts to take revenge” on the striking workers.

He also proclaimed that there would be “death before retreat”, and that the strike would continue outside the Koop Bank’s head office in northern Nicosia on Wednesday – the building into which striking workers had stormed last week.

On that occasion, workers had reached as far as the general manager’s office, with general manager Kemal Ataman then reportedly fleeing.

The workers were, according to newspaper Yeniduzen, demanding that the bank’s management resign.

“I filed a police complaint against those who raided my office, broke the door, and caused the ceiling to collapse… No one has the right to raid, kick, or destroy a place,” Ataman told Yeniduzen.

On Monday, Guroz had focused on the alleged plans to lay 44 workers off, saying that “if we cannot prevent the laying off of 44 of our coworkers, they will hunt us down one by one tomorrow”.

Monday’s protest had taken place outside the north’s cooperative companies’ registrar office, with Guroz saying the location had been chosen with the aim of convincing those inside not to sign off on the reported 44 layoffs.

“Do not sign the paperwork. Do not be complicit in this. History will not forget you,” he said.