CYPRUS: Public strikes off after gov’t chickens out of bonus tax

One after the other, trade unions called off their strikes planned for Friday after the government backed out of a plan to tax the retirement bonus for civil servants, a privilege that could range between 100,000 and 500,000 and goes beyond other pension benefits.

The decision followed a mediation effort hosted by President Anastasiades, where Finance Minister Haris Georghiades assured public sector workers that their bonus would not be taxed and that there would be no more pay cuts.
This was clearly not a bargaining session as the Finance Minister got no other concessions in return.
Georghiades had pondered taxing the bonus which civil servants are entitled to having completed 33.3 years of service and which has remained tax-free and without any contribution from the employee.
The public sector trade union PASYDY said it would never negotiate taxing or lowering the bonus and called for strike action on Friday, that ranged from 12-hour stoppages by teachers, government office workers and police, to a 24-hour walkout by public doctors and nurses.
The army and the University of Cyprus had declared they would not partake in the strike, while semi-government unions SEK and PEO, called for a 3-hour warning strike in solidarity. Semi-government workers in services such as Cyta, the electricity producer EAC, the Ports Authority, the Post Office and other departments that are geared for privatisation over the next four years, already pay taxes on their retirement bonuses, to which they contribute and are managed by their provident funds.