SECONDARY and technical school teachers went on strike yesterday, while primary school teachers staged a two-hour work stoppage from 11am to express their disapproval of the first package of austerity measures designed by the government and passed by the House of Representatives.
The teachers’ mobilisation was organised by public school teachers unions OELMEK, OLTEK and POED and was also supported by of the Pancyprian Federation of Student Unions (POFEN), while memorandums of their complaints was presented to both the Minister of Finance Kikis Kazamias and the House President Yiannakis Omirou.
A Cost of Living Allowance pay freeze for the rest of 2011 has angered teachers while measures to set freshly appointed teachers’ wage at €2,000 have not boded well either.
Responding to demands for teachers to be included in the designing process of austerity measures, Omirou said that the House recognised the need for a wider social dialogue and was its intention to foster this.
“The House understands the need to combat the impact of the global economic crisis and all the parties are targeting measures that will cleanse the Cypriot economy in the long-term” said Omirou.
“The impact of the economic crisis cannot be shouldered exclusively by teachers and civil servants but by everyone either on an equal or proportional level” said Demetris Talliadoros, President of OELMEK, outside parliament yesterday. “The wealthy have been let loose by the government and haven’t contributed at all.”
While stressing that teachers had contributed enough, Filios Fylactou, President of POED, said that tax evasion needed to be addressed.
“There are over one billion euros worth of uncollected taxes and if only fifty per cent of that is collected then that would help and even solve the country’s budget deficit” said Fylactou.
“Now is the time for the wealthy to contribute, because up to know they have only contributed to an increased unemployment rate and to massive job losses.”
As the teachers protested, thousands of parents were forced to work around the strike, and hoardes of teenagers crowded downtown Nicosia yesterday.
Michalis Pilikos, President of the Cyprus Employers & Industrialists Federation (OEV) shared no sympathy to the strike.
“These clichéd phrases of haves and have-nots are way off the mark, since the industry’s recovery is perhaps the country’s only way to save the economy” said Pilikos.
“The last people I expected to strike were the teachers; who happen to be one of the most privileged groups of public servants, and it does give the impression that they are completely out of touch with reality.”
In a statement yesterday after the strike, Nikos Tornaritis, Vice-President of right-wing party DISY expressed his party’s disapproval of the strike.
“Teachers should act in a manner that reflects their social function as role models to students and society and we should allow logic and dialogue to prevail so as to collectively find a way out of the economic dead-ends.”
Source: Cyprus Mail
