The decision by the main unions to stage a national, three-hour work stoppage to press for the full restoration of the Cost of Living Allowance (CoLA) came as no surprise. The original deadline for a deal on CoLA was the end of June but the haggling continued long after that without reaching conclusion. After last Friday’s meeting failed to produce an agreement, union bosses met on Monday to announce when they would stage a ‘warning’ strike in both public and private sectors, presumably as a show of unity.

There may be a show of unity but not all the striking workers have something to gain from the dynamic, united action, because only a third of private sector workers are entitled to CoLA. In other words, lowly-paid private sector workers will go on strike so that primarily highly-paid, underworked public employees, such as teachers, civil servants, hospital doctors, judges, army officers, all of whom are entitled to CoLA – will get a higher cost of living index-based allowance every year. At present, they are paid 67 per cent of the allowance entitlement but now want it in full.

Employers organisations have taken a tough line and, according to the unions, so has the government. They accused Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou, who is usually aligned with the unions, of siding with employers, as if this were a crime. In fact, it is the government which should be leading the opposition to the demand for 100 per cent CoLA because it is the state that will be served the biggest bill in the event the rate of inflation increases. It had also been advised by the IMF – it had asked the Fund for suggestions for controlling the growth of the public payroll – to scrap CoLA so it would be totally irresponsible to agree to pay more.

All talk of fiscal discipline would be a joke if the government agreed to a higher calculation of CoLA. This may be manageable while the inflation rate is low, but if it takes off, at some point the government will be faced with a much higher state payroll without being able to do anything about it. The same applies to private sector companies that, quite rightly, do not want their payroll to be affected by upward price movements because union bosses cannot face losing a dispute. They should be happy with the 67 per cent instead of demanding 100 per cent, especially knowing that CoLA benefits the fat cats of the public sector and has zero benefit for the lowest paid workers, the majority of whom are not entitled to it.

So, if the employers and the government do not give in after next week’s three-hour work stoppage will the union call a general strike? I think the government should let them do this regardless of the inconvenience it will cause if only to prove to the union bosses that they cannot always have it their own way. And we doubt there will be many workers on minimum wage willing to sacrifice a day or two’s pay striking so that overpaid public employees could get higher wages.