Employees of the Ministry of Education’s support programs took to the streets again, staging a protest march this morning from the PASYDY offices to the Presidential Palace.

The protesters are demanding immediate solutions to serious labor issues, which, they say, are causing hundreds of workers to struggle to make ends meet.

““So let’s meet again on the path of struggle that we’ve come to know so well over the past 15 years.”
_{Andreas Kounnis – General Secretary of PASEU-PEO}

Their first and foremost demand is that the necessary steps be taken so that permanent employees who are not employed in the programs during the summer months can receive unemployment benefits or that a policy decision be made to provide 12 months of pay.

READ ALSO: “Three months without pay”: Teachers protested with signs and banners—here’s the government’s response “We are asking

for what should be self-evident. The human right, labor right—must be understood by the government, and the necessary steps must be taken so that you have an income during the period from the end of the school year until the start of the new school year.”
<sub>George Konstantinou – General Secretary of OEKDY-SEK “Do you know

of</sub> any permanent employee in Cyprus who, when they’re absent from their office job, goes unpaid?”
_{Anonymous statement}

At the same time, they are calling for the immediate announcement of job openings for fixed-term employees who were working on other programs that have been terminated. 

“Today, they say there are no funds to hire us, even though there are needs—and at the very same time they’re proposing overtime for permanent teachers.”
_{Andreas Kounnis – General Secretary of PASEU-PEO}

Positive Response

The Director of the President’s Press Office, who received the protesters’ memorandum, assured them that the positions would be announced immediately; regarding the unemployment issue, a two-week extension was requested to allow time for legal advice to be sought from the Legal Service. 

The teachers, however, warned that if their demands are not met, there will be a new protest.

Watch the report by Rafaella Stavrinou: