Education Minister Athena Michaelidou on Monday called for dialogue rather than strike action to resolve a dispute involving around 950 employees including support staff and those on short contracts, while defending proposed changes to the teacher appointment system amid opposition from unions.

Speaking after a meeting of the House human rights committee, Michaelidou said “solutions must be found at the negotiating table, through dialogue and discussion with other bodies, including the finance ministry and the labour ministry, and not through such action,” referring to the indefinite strike launched by those affected.

She said the government had supported almost all the workers’ demands over the past three years, during which many had moved from service-purchasing arrangements to salaried employment and subsequently to indefinite-term contracts.

Some employees remain on fixed-term contracts, she said, adding that two main issues were still outstanding.

The first concerns unemployment benefits for indefinite-term employees, who are not entitled to them under the rules governing the wider public sector.

“We are working to find possible solutions with the finance ministry. This is purely a financial and legal issue,” she said.

She added that a meeting of permanent secretaries was taking place at the finance ministry on Monday to discuss the matter.

The second demand concerns employment opportunities for fixed-term workers alongside those on indefinite-term contracts.

Michaelidou said all indefinite-term employees were currently working and being paid under the programmes, while fixed-term employees could apply through the relevant legal procedures for inclusion in the registers of the ministry’s programmes.

“We are therefore not opposed to their demands,” she said.

The minister said the ministry had recently invited workers to meetings, informed them of developments and maintained telephone contact.

She reiterated that granting unemployment benefits to indefinite-term employees would require a legal exception and therefore could not be resolved by the education ministry alone.

“Everyone wants solutions to be found,” she said.

She also said the ministry had prepared an action plan to address certain issues should the strike continue for an extended period.

Teacher appointment demands

Turning to objections over proposed changes to the teacher appointment system, Michaelidou said the government had accepted most of the unions’ demands.

However, she said one disagreement remained: the unions’ demand for teachers to obtain permanent appointments without passing an examination.

“This is not legally permissible,” she said, explaining that the requirement was consistent with procedures in the wider public sector.

Michaelidou said the proposed changes sought to balance recognition of teaching experience with opportunities for new candidates to enter the profession.

She warned that automatically granting permanent appointments to approximately 4,000 teachers without examinations would effectively prevent others from entering the system.

If everything proceeded according to plan, the bill would be submitted to parliament by the end of November, allowing all interested parties to discuss the proposals.

She also rejected claims circulating among affected teachers that the government intended to terminate their employment or prevent them from obtaining permanent positions.

“Neither of these is true,” she said.

Michaelidou explained that around 40,000 people were currently on the appointment waiting list, hoping eventually to secure employment or permanent positions.

She said the government intended to retain employment according to staffing needs, with appointments divided equally between candidates on the existing lists and those who had passed the examination.

Candidates who passed the proposed ranking examination would be able to secure permanent appointments more quickly.

The minister recalled that the abolition of the existing appointment list had been decided in 2015 as part of what was described at the time as the largest education reform.