Planned hospital strike may be called off

A 24-hour strike scheduled for next Tuesday at public hospitals may be called off, but this depends on the state health services (Okypy)’s reaction to discussion that were held on Tuesday.

Okypy is expected to make its positions clear on Wednesday.

Trade unions Sek and Peo discussed abolishing procedures for hiring seasonal staff and instead employing permanent hourly staff.

Peo’s Stavros Andreou said Okypy “appears to have accepted our position.”

The trade unions also raised the issue of hiring contract workers for specific jobs.

Andreou said Okypy seemed to have agreed on this issue too and would make an effort to delegate those jobs to the hourly staff and only hire services for specialised work that cannot be covered by the existing staff.

“We are not calling off the measures we announced a few days ago. The organisation has asked for 24 hours to send us in writing everything we have discussed and its final position on the issues we have raised,” Andreou said.

He added that the trade unions would reevaluate their decision for a strike after they receive Okypy’s letter.

Andreou said if they do not receive a letter or its content is far from the agreed points, then “we will go ahead with the strike.”

“We believe we are turning a page and the organisation will have better communication with the two trade unions so that we can discuss the problems arising at times,” Sek’s Giorgos Constantinou added.