Japan, Cyprus

EPSU affiliates, FP SEK, FSGE SEK, PASYDY, report that they will be taking strike action on 15 December in protest at the latest package of austerity measures. Earlier measures and the latest pay freeze mean that public sector workers will be 15% worse off by 2013. The unions are particularly angry that, despite the fact that most of the measures affect public sector workers, there has no social dialogue. There will also be a protest outside the finance ministry and a march to parliament. [Read more at > Cyprus Mail (EN)->http://www.cyprus-mail.com/union/unions-vote-hold-wage-freeze-strikes

EPSU letter of support to PASYDYEPSU has written to the Minister of Finance to protest about the government's decision to make drastic cuts to nurses' pay and conditions without any preceding dialogue with trade unions and employers’ organisations. The measures include a 15% reduction to all shift benefits of nursing personnel for night shifts and 35% for Sundays and public holidays, as of 1 January 2013. In addition, on 26 September 2013 the government proposed a law which, if voted, would abolish all benefits for evening shifts and it would also entail a further reduction, beyond the initial

Public service union PASYDY, will take strike action on 19 September in protest at statements from the Minister of Finance about the possibility of further cuts in pay and pensions. The union argues that public sector workers have already seen their pay and pensions cut and that the government should direct its attention at those who caused the crisis. In the meantime the SEK trade union has decided not to take part in the strike following a meeting with the Ministry of Finance where the union was told there were no plans to cut the pay of hourly-paid workers and that any changes would be

Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot workers, members of FP SEK and TOURKSEN, took joint action earlier this month against British Government plans to slash wages of workers at the Sovereign British Base areas in Cyprus. All civilian workers in Limassol (Episkopi and Akrotiri) and in Larnaca (Dekelia) took five days of action from 7-11 September. The strike was decided after a deadlock in the negotiations between the two sides and after the employers side announced that cuts in wages will be applied by the end of September 2015, ignoring the advice of the Ministry of Labour of Cyprus not to make

(March 2017) The ETUC is calling for a pay rise for workers across Europe and in the latest initiative in its campaign reveals that wages are lower now than they were eight years ago in seven EU member states while in 18 EU countries wages have grown much slower over the seven years after the crisis than in the eight years before that.In the 7 years 2009-2016 real wages (adjusted for inflation) have fallen every year by an average of 3.1 % in Greece; 1 % in Croatia; 0.9 % in Hungary; 0.7 % in Portugal; 0.6 % in Cyprus; 0.4 % in UK, and 0.3 % in Italy.

(April 2017) The KTAMS civil service union in Cyprus organised strike action in the Turkish News Agency at the end of March over the denial of promotion to certain Agency employees. This is an issue that the union has taken up with the government which has prevented the Agency management from carrying out the promotions.