Doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff at state hospitals all across Cyprus went on strike from 8:30am till 10:30am on Tuesday over their collective agreements.
In a joint statement, unions SEK, PEO, Deok, Pasydy, Pasyki and Pasyno said they were taking the warning action because the state health services organisation (Okypy) had not kept up its obligations in drawing up a new collective agreement for staff.
Monday’s meeting with the Minister of Health and Okypy representatives which lasted more than two hours failed to yield results, Philenews reports.
The unions argued that they expected, even the last minute, that Okypy would have presented them with a comprehensive collective agreement proposal for dialogue to resume.
Instead, and only after the intervention of Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantela, Okypy gave promises that it will come back with a comprehensive proposal on Monday.
This did not satisfy union representatives who heard this for the third time so they continued with Tuesday’s announced work stoppage.
The issue focuses on the renewal of the collective agreement for staff hired on individual contracts that were set to expire at the end of December 2022.
