The three main contenders for next month’s presidential elections has so far shied away from hot issues related to the economy and have maintained a general approach to most of the subjects, with promises and pledges of reform and financial aid to any social group one could possibly think of.
It is unfortunate that House president Demetris Christofias declared during his visit to the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance that the state finances and operation of the department did not warrant an increase in the retirement and pensionable age to 65 and beyond.
This faux pas by the candidate for next month’s elections who claims to be closest to the people, was obviously driven by his presidential aspirations as his statements aimed to serve the concerns of the civil servants who are burdened with the work and also to appease the strong union support for his candidacy.
Trade unions are dead against raising the age for the first pension to 65 and even to 68, because this would mean longer service for government employees who do not want to work more than they have to, and a fear of fewer jobs for unionised workers as later retirement would delay promotions and new recruits.
Teachers are the most vociferous of the objectors because they also comprise one of the biggest groups who are often used by political parties to promise jobs and subsequently to collect votes, despite the great disparity in the level of education and ability of teachers, many of whom use means of favouritism to secure a place in government.
The productivity rate of teachers must be one of the lowest of all working classes in Cyprus, as the biggest factor in this calculation is the long summer vacation they take and the many public holidays they enjoy or ‘national’ events they look forward to in order to play truant from school. In other words, they want all the benefits of early retirement and they want us taxpayers to foot the bill.
What Mr. Christofias had not realised when making his statement was that if nothing is done to reform the social insurance system and raise the pensionable age in order to increase contributions, fifty years from now, the present generation of young men and women who would have voted for him may not even have a decent pension because the Social Insurance Fund would have been drained to support the excessive number of civil servants, teachers and semi-government employees.
