After the agreement reached between the social partners and the Ministry of Labor on the employment of foreigners from third countries, the affected companies are waiting for the meeting with the competent minister, in order to clarify the details of the employment strategy, while at the same time, they declare that in no case are foreign workers not a cheap solution, but on the contrary, they are more costly.
It is noted that what has been agreed upon and announced by the Minister of Labour, Yiannis Panagiotou himself, is the improvement of the framework of the living conditions of foreign workers through the formation of appropriate standards and the provision of the corresponding possibilities, as well as the utilization of the existing Strategy Employment of Foreign Workforce for the formulation of agreed content.
On their part, the hoteliers, believe that in the first phase a thorough negotiation must be carried out on this specific issue, which must be modernized and reflect at the same time the needs of the time, and also of the industry, as they have been created today. As the General Director of PASYXE Filokypros Rousounidis told REPORTER, “we expect to be invited by the Ministry of Labor soon, to see them all together and submit our opinions in order to reach a decision that will help the development of the economy” .
Regarding the issue of understaffing, this seems to be a problem that the hotel industry has been dealing with for several years. “What we can say for sure is that this summer things will be better than last year because there was indeed an acceleration of the procedures. Beyond that, however, the need for employment continues.”
If there is exploitation of foreign workers in hotels, Mr Rousounidis categorically denied this “myth”, as he described it, to add that, “at least for our industry, what we can boldly say is that there is no such issue. All foreign workers who come from third countries are under specific conditions and based on the terms of the collective agreement and there is no question of an employee being exploited”.
Now, as Mr. Rousounidis mentioned, “in order for a worker from a third country to work, he only comes based on the terms and salary of the collective agreement. In fact, the foreign workforce in the hotel industry costs even more than the Cypriots, because they receive the same wages and additionally have the cost of accommodation, food and tickets. As can be seen, the foreign labor force is not a cheap solution, but an urgent need”. /b>, they are also waiting for the establishment of the agreement and the state's support for the businesses that are at risk of lockout, due to their understaffing. According to the General Secretary of the Association of Leisure Center Owners, Fano Leventis, “everything is judged in practice. What we expect to see is for businesses that are demonstrably unable to find the right staff. The state must provide them with the possibility to import foreign workers and at the same time, these procedures must be very fast. In other words, that companies can be staffed on time and that is the bet”.
However, Leisure Center entrepreneurs believe that understaffing will continue to exist, as the facts have now changed. “It has changed the way young people are employed today, who think they don't need to work in such places. Unfortunately, we have too many young people who do not work in the jobs we have in mind, but secure income from their involvement in Social Media”, added Mr. Leventis.
At the same time, the opinion that prevails and has been analyzed by Mr. Leventis, is that, “it is not considered that the new employment strategy will greatly increase the workforce from third countries and not we believe that someone will bring in staff without needing it, nor do I want to believe that they will be exploited by employers, because it is not that easy to bring in foreign workers”.
At the same time, on an almost daily basis are the complaints expressed by the distributors, who are also waiting for the institutionalization of the employment strategy, so that they can claim their rights and work under normal conditions.
< p data-block-key="9nbmg">As the General Secretary of the Hotel Employees' Union, Neophytos Timinis, stated, “quite often we receive complaints from employees working in distribution companies, however, we expect that with the regulation of procedures calm will come and we will use the new strategy as a tool employment, so as to establish all the rights of the workers”.
Essentially, the employment strategy is going to pave the way in the sectors in which the distributors are active and it is expected that they will there should be calm and a specific procedure, as regards the control of the places where work permits are given. “For our part, with the corresponding Trade Union of the Greek Confederation of Trade Unions, we have determined the ways and procedures by which we rely on the specific employment strategy regarding the control for the implementation of the collective agreement and the livelihood of workers from third countries”.
However, as far as the issues that concern the distributors are concerned, the Syntechnia expects that within days there will be a conclusion from the mediation service of the competent Department of the Ministry of Labor, in order to regulate and the industry of e-commerce companies itself.
