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Salary increases in 2017

17/11/2015 16:44
The government intends to proceed to salary increases in the public sector in 2017 on the condition that the parliament will adopt the bill about public payroll.

In the context of the discussion of the six bills regarding reforms in the public sector, the deputy minister Constantinos Petrides pointed out that the reductions in civil servants' salaries done in 2012 were permanent.

He stressed that there will be no restoration of salaries to the pre-2012 levels.

Mr. Petrides asked the parliament to adopt the bill about public sector salaries which as he said will depend on GDP growth.

The deputy minister described the public sector reforms as "drastic reforms".

"I think" he said "that we are going against long-established practices in the public sector".

He noted that with the reform plan the viability of the public sector payroll is secured.

Civil servants, he said, will be rewarded based on the real abilities of the economy, they will benefit their fair share of economic development, there will be more merit-based promotions and for the first time in Cyprus there will be an evaluation system which will not evaluate all civil servants the same.

He said that through employee transferability the proper staffing of departments will be secured, since redundant personnel will be transferred to other services that are short-staffed.

He stressed that the aim is to implement the reform framework in 2017 while the government would like the bill to be adopted by 2016 the latest.

The civil servants union (PASYDI) general secretary Mr. Glafkos Xatzipetrou said that PASYDI disagrees with the provisions regarding salary extra increases. He clarified that as long as those are kept "in the ice" there will be no reactions from their part.

He also expressed reservations for the quotas and the regulations regarding the evaluation of employees and proposed an implementation of the new evaluation system on a trial basis in 2016.

The general secretary of PEO union Mr Pampis Kyritsis stated that these bills undermine the collective agreements and expressed his disagreement in regard to the ATA provision which will be reduced by 50% and will be given just once annually.

OHO-SEK general secretary Antreas Elias stated that he disagrees with the legislative regulation of salary issues.

Reservations have been expressed also by other unions and bodies.