The strong disagreement of the Owners of Leisure Centers to take the burden of controlling their clients whether they hold a safe pass or rapid test or to appoint their employee as a safety and health officer, due to the fines and criminal responsibilities included in the relevant provision of the decree of the Minister of Health, expressed the Secretary General of the Pancyprian Association of Leisure Center Owners (PASIKA) Fanos Leventis, announcing a series of mobilizations of entrepreneurs by province, starting next Friday.
"For us, our role in this provision of the decree can not be anyone other than supportive," said Mr. Leventis, speaking at a press conference, which was attended by representatives of the Association from all provinces of Cyprus.
Mr. Leventis also said that "the Police or other authorized state officials should enter our premises with discretion and courtesy and exercise sampling controls."
"In an effort not to spoil the image of the Police, this burden has been transferred to us, as a result of which we have been experiencing frictions in the past few days with our friends who have been visiting our premises for years," he added.
At the same time, he stated that "if the state insists on this provision" then it is possible that a staff will proportionally subsidize us to employ it and that this is the sole responsibility of the specific staff ", adding that" this would also serve the Ministry of Labor as " a very significant number of unemployed would automatically be employed ".
Mr. Leventis said that PASIKA will wait for the next session of the Council of Ministers to change the provision of the decree in such a way, as he said, "which will fully amuse our concerns and certainly not in the way that some organizations suggested to the Minister of Health ".
He said that the thinking of the organizations is "negatively impressive" and says that in order not to be complained about by the businessmen, if a group of customers enter a leisure center and refuse to present the necessary documents and "do not want to leave the place they can sit in a table, not to serve them, and to file a complaint to the Police ".
"They will all catch us at work and come to our premises to make a fuss," he said, adding that "these are not serious things to be declared by serious organizations."
In addition, he referred to some organizations that try to teach us, as he said, "culture of us who refuse to apply this provision while they themselves did not do sampling checks on the premises and let people in waiting waiting for the Police to check so we have a large number of cases in some areas ".
He also said that employees of the centers "now stubbornly refuse to take on this role because they are also charged with criminal liability in the event of a breach of the decree" and wondered "who will pay the fines in a possible liability exclusively to the employee we have appointed to control ", in addition to the criminal liability that may exist.
"It is these vague provisions that in its wisdom the competent Ministry did not intend to introduce as clarifying statements," he said, adding that if they are done now "they do not satisfy us if they are not accompanied by our release from this unnecessary and unjustified responsibility." .
The Secretary General of PASIKA also said that the majority of the population has a document required by the safe pass and "there is a small gap in relation to small age groups that the state should work out how to control these ages."
In addition, he stated that "once again we pay primarily for the disastrous mistakes that were made again in the controls upon entering the country with omissions and wrong policy that was implemented and we now have the import of mutated forms of the virus in our country", he added.
We consider it inconceivable for the second time to allow a country that can easily control anyone entering the country to have reached a point where it is a global phenomenon with such high incidence rates.
"Once again we see the industry paying the price again for the breaches of the minimum," said Mr. Leventis, who referred to a list of 30 Cypriot establishments compiled by the Ministry of Health, which blames them for the spread of the virus.
The Secretary General of PASIKA said that out of the 3.500 leisure centers throughout Cyprus, most of them apply what is provided and at the same time "are punished through the provision of the decree which calls on businessmen to play the role of police officer or other competent authorized bodies. may exercise such controls ".
Referring to measures taken by leisure centers, Mr. Leventis said that "a very significant number of leisure centers - in addition to the form of protest they want to give - are de facto forced to suspend their operation and send their staff to unemployment for as long as the decree or the specific provision lasts due to the fact that their turnover has been reduced by 60% and they are obliged to operate at 50% of their capacity.
Another measure, according to the Secretary General of PASIKA, is that businessmen by province have announced dynamic mobilizations, starting on Friday, "in an effort to demand from the state to listen to their justified concerns which are substantiated".
He added that "it is a constitutional obligation of the country to consult with those who will be affected by a decision".
In addition, Mr. Leventis said that he considers it "hypocrisy and discrimination to receive visitors in our country and then in our own places with only the flightpass which lasts for the duration of his flight and his arrival at the hotel that it will end ".