Payment of the increased ATA rate will begin in June
The social partners, in the presence of the Minister of Labor, Labor and Social Insurance Yiannis Panagiotou as mediator, signed today the new transitional agreement for the payment of ATA at a rate of 66.7% of inflation (from 50% that was valid under the previous agreement).
The payment of the increased rate of ATA will begin in June, while the social dialogue for the conclusion to a complete and permanent agreement will be completed by June 2025.
“This success belongs to everyone because together we tried and together we managed to come to an agreement”, said the Minister of Labor in the statements after the signing at the Ministry of Labor, in Nicosia, thanking the social partners “for the cooperation and constructive attitude they showed by evaluating the data with rationality and responsibility”.
“Our country”, he added, “is faced with great challenges and our Government can manage them effectively with unity and collegiality, moving forward with steady steps and finding solutions to difficult problems”.
How we do for decades, reaching mutually acceptable agreements through social dialogue, this is how we acted and now serving the public interest, it concluded.
Both the employers and the trade unions thanked the Minister of Labor for his mediation efforts and noted that by safeguarding labor peace, the way is now open for discussion of other issues that concern the labor market.
In his own statements, the General Secretary of the Greek Trade Union Confederation, Andreas Matsas, said that through the use of the dialogue, we were able to “maintain labor peace and create the conditions so that we can adequately manage all the issues that are before the Labor Consultative Body ».
“At the same time, we are laying the foundations and creating the conditions so that the institution of ATA, as a key component of collective agreements, continues to provide solutions in terms of maintaining the purchasing power of wages and at the same time we can expand and to consolidate the institution of collective agreements so as to cover all workers”, he concluded.
For her part, the General Manager of PEO, Sotiroula Charalambous, thanked the workers who stood by the trade unions in the struggle for ATA and added that “we fought a battle that continues”.
“ATA fulfills the goal and role for which it has been structured since 1944 and at the same time we immediately expect a structured social dialogue to fulfill the commitment of the Republic of Cyprus to expand the employees covered by collective labor agreements, to expand the employees who are covered by the ATA”, he said.
In his own statements, the General Secretary of PASYDY, Stratis Matthaiou, said that today an important step was taken for labor peace and added that “the agreement creates a good climate for the next day”.
“ATA is the only tool that preserves the purchasing value of wages”, he said, expressing thanks to the Minister and the social partners for reaching a result.
DEOK President Iosif Anastasiou said that the today is “a good day for social dialogue, for labor peace, for the stability of the economy and for the workers, who fought to ensure the institution of ATA”.
Saying that the institution is guaranteed through the continuation of the transitional agreement, Mr. Anastasiou concluded by saying that “a difficult path awaits us in relation to the restoration of the ATA institution, but also in general for the strengthening of labor rights”.
The President of the OEB, Antonis Antoniou, said that after the signing of the agreement “for the first time, the opportunity and the time are given to sit down together and examine those points, which are anachronistic, which erode the economy, which undermine competitiveness, which feed inflation and widen the gap between the low-paid and the high-paid”. dialogue in order to codify a new institution which will respond to today's and future realities in the workplace always with the aim and goal of the development and well-being of every employee and every citizen of our country”.
The Secretary-General of KEBE Marios Tsiakkis said that today's agreement succeeded in giving a 1.5% increase in workers' salaries despite the difficulties faced by businesses, it ensures labor peace for the coming years and therefore we are allowed to enter the third leg, that of the dialogue .
“To see how we modernize this institution, make it more correct so that workers and businesses benefit in the right way, always maintaining the competitiveness of the economy and the country”, he concluded.
p>
