The civil servants union PASIDY has stepped back from strike action scheduled on Thursday, protesting the announcement of financial consolidation measures agreed between the government and political parties, after an appeal by President of the Republic Demetris Christofias during a meeting with the union leadership earlier Tuesday.

Speaking after a meeting of the union’s general council, its General Secretary Glafcos Hadzipetrou said measures would be decided on Wednesday following a meeting of all trade unions.

At the same time, President Christofias has welcomed the development.

“We strongly feel that there has been no social dialogue and that the Minister of Finance has violated the agreement he signed with the unions”, said Hadzipetrou, adding that “they gave us the impression that the role of trade unions was not recognized”.

He said President Christofias appealed to the union to convey to its general council his plea for a suspension of strike action and he (the President) acknowledges that everything that happened was unorthodox. “He assured us that nothing similar will happen in the future”, he added.

Amid the continuing financial crisis and the weak growth of the Cypriot economy, projected at a mere 0.2% GDP in 2012, the government introduced a series of austerity measures that would enable Cyprus to meet its medium term commitments to the EU and particularly for a budget deficit of 2.8 GDP in 2012 and a zero deficit by 2014.

Hadzipetrou said that the measures taken are painful and therefore “we are planning our reaction during an all-trade union meeting”. He also announced PASIDY’s intention to meet with leaders of the biggest political parties to discuss the union’s readiness to give the amount of 35 million euro demanded from civil servants, in a fairer manner than that decided with the new measures.