The 1.851 posts that the government has asked the Finance Committee to unfreeze so that the process of filling them can proceed are necessary and have already been approved by the budget, the unions say, asking Parliament to implement the agreement signed between the unions PASYDY-PEO-SEK and the Ministry of Finance to abolish the unfreezing of positions.
The General Secretary of PASYDY, Stratis Matthaiou, told KYPE that these are not additional positions, but positions that are within the budget. "The procedures that exist for unfreezing positions are time-consuming, they are not expected to be paid in two or six months, they take a long time. Our position is that these positions are necessary and should go forward," he noted.
Furthermore, he stated that PASYDY's position is that the institution of freezing must be ended. "There is a bill from the previous government, submitted, signed by PASYDY, SEK, PEO, that the institution of freezing must be stopped. We call on the Parliament, on this occasion, to proceed quickly with the approval of the bill in question", he said.
The General Secretary of SIDIKEK-PEO, Nikos Grigoriou, told KYPE that PEO's principle is that there should be proper control, at the right time, by the Parliament for positions in the public and wider sector. At the same time, however, it seems that the process that took place within the framework of the Memorandum is suffering, for which it was a condition that all positions go to the Parliament for unfreezing, even though they have been approved by the budgets of each organization, he said. This process, he noted, was causing major dysfunctions in some organizations and leading to severe understaffing, resulting in either ineffective organizations or recourse to purchasing services.
That's why "as PEO, SEK and PASYDY trade unions, we identified the need to change this process and for the control process that is done through the budget of each organization to be sufficient. For this reason, a high-level agreement was reached, about a year ago, between Constantinos Petridis, as the Ministry of Finance, PASYDY, OHO-SEK and SIDIKEK-PEO. An agreement was signed which said that the second unfreezing process needs to be stopped and we should just stick to the process of considering the budget positions," he said.
Mr. Grigoriou also noted that the process of mass de-icing of seats takes place twice a year. "It's not the first time. In recent years, twice a year we have over 1.000 seats. They are collected needs, which the process, as it is today, forces the organizations to request them", he noted.
The General Secretary of SIDIKEK-PEO in his turn expressed a request that the agreement of the social partners be respected and that the process of examining the parliamentary control be done in the budget of each organization. "It serves no purpose to collect positions for de-icing", he said, while he emphasized that the most serious thing, "which we will not accept, is, for any reason, for organizations to be understaffed, unable to carry out their role and mainly, to give the opportunity to the government or whoever has neoliberal policies, to buy services in the wider public sector. Where this is done, PEO will react and report it to society."
The Secretary of OHO-SEK, Andreas Ilias, told KYPE that the list also includes positions related to the wider public sector and local government, which are absolutely necessary for the organizations to function. "There has been a check on the necessity of filling," he said, noting that SEK, PEO and PASYDY have signed an agreement that the procedure and legislation of unfreezing positions should be abolished.
"The necessary control, both by the government and by the Parliament, is exercised during the approval of the budgets, where the positions necessary for the operation of the services, organizations and the state in general are included", he noted in his turn.
"We have signed the specific agreement with the Ministry of Finance, starting in May 2022, because we jointly realized that problems are created by the whole process with the delays observed in order to fill positions absolutely necessary for the operation of the organizations. Besides, it is known that in order to fill a position in the wider public sector, specific legally defined processes are followed, which are also time-consuming", he underlined.
The General Secretary of the DEE KDOKO, Andreas Antoniou, reported to KYPE that the DEEC is positive regarding the unfreezing of the specific positions. "We are talking about first appointment positions and positions that have been approved by the budget for 2023." Consequently, he said, "we cannot see why the Finance Committee of the House insists and raises various issues regarding the filling of the positions."
In addition, he noted that Cyprus went through a difficult period, while even with the presidential elections, recruitment and unfreezing of positions were not progressing. "Today, after so many storms that the economy has gone through and all the safeguards we have put in place, such as the unfreezing of positions following the approval of the Finance Committee, we must change and find an easier way to escape from the big bureaucracy as well ».
Finally, Mr. Antoniou noted that "it is not the job of the Parliament how the government and its staffing will function" and therefore there is no need to document the necessity of the positions. "The needs are there," he concluded.
Source: KYPE