Changes in police working hours recently presented by police chief Themistos Arnaoutis will be discussed at House legal affairs committee next week, committee chairman and Disy MP Nicos Tornaritis said on Tuesday.

Tornaritis said the committee had also asked for a presentation of the organisational chart of the police, as well as of broader safety initiatives, which were to be discussed together with the proposal.

The meeting will be attended by representatives from the justice ministry, the police and police unions.

Cyprus Police Association president Angelos Nikolaou, speaking to the Cyprus News Agency on Tuesday, said that the association had already requested meetings to discuss the issue with all parliamentary parties.

The association has sought legal counsel regarding the circular issued about working hours, and is currently waiting for a meeting of the Joint Police Personnel Committee (JPC) to be scheduled.

Police unions have expressed intense opposition to the police chief’s proposal, arguing that the reforms would alter daily working hours and significantly reduce officers’ rest days, from 19.5 to 4.7 per month.

Police spokesman Vyron Vyronos later rejected the unions’ criticism, stressing that Arnaoutis was “not in conflict with police officers” and that applying “rational criteria” to improve police operations fell within the chief’s mandate.

He said the reform was not intended to abolish overtime work, but to restrict it to cases where it was genuinely necessary, citing examples of past abuse.

Therefore, he explained, after filling vacancies, the decision for the implementation of a 37.5-hour working week had been made, as had been agreed with the unions in 2019.

On Monday, the CPA met Disy president Annita Demetriou, as well as other Disy MPs, and “analysed the serious implications these reforms have both on labour rights and the wellbeing of police officers, as well as on the proper functioning and effectiveness of the police force in general.”

Vice President of Isotita union’s police branch Nikos Loizides on Tuesday described reform plans as “an executive administrative act that violates the core of the rule of law, the principle of legality and the hierarchy of legal rules in Cyprus.”

He threatened legal action, saying that his statements could be considered a first warning.

Loizides said the European police union Eurocop’s secretary general was expected to comment on the matter and pay a visit to the island in late January

It is unclear exactly what Arnaoutis’ proposal entails as no official document has been made public and details so far have emerged primarily through union criticism.