The standoff between the Organization of State Health Services (OKYPY) and the labor unions is reaching a boiling point, against the backdrop of a two-day strike by workers.
Speaking on the Alpha Kalimera program, PASYEK General Secretary-PEO, Stavros Andreou, analyzed the root causes of the dispute, the Organization’s unfulfilled commitments, and the workers’ proposals for resolving the impasse.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
As Mr. Andreou explained, two distinct categories of staff work at OKYPY: long-serving civil servants (doctors and nurses) and the approximately 1,600 employees who were hired directly by the Organization from 2019 to the present. For these employees, who were significantly disadvantaged in terms of rights, the first collective bargaining agreement was signed in 2024 with the aim of reducing inequalities.
However, the union representative complained that OKYPY failed to implement two fundamental commitments of the 2024 agreement. As he noted, the Organization failed to establish the necessary organizational structures. He also stated that while the law required OKYPY to grant pay raises every three years, the Organization had committed to switching to annual increases, a commitment that has remained unimplemented for the past two years.
Referring to the new collective bargaining agreement (2026–2028), which has been the subject of negotiations for the past ten months, Mr. Andreou noted that the unions are demanding annual increases of 3%, while OKYPY is offering 2.75% for 2026.
He emphasized that the disagreement is not centered on this small percentage gap, but on the Organization’s refusal to implement pay scales that would ensure career advancement and job security for employees. The absence of clear pay scales has resulted in a large wave of resignations among newly hired employees, who are leaving in search of better working conditions.
Regarding the link between performance evaluations and pay raises, Mr. Andreou clarified the unions’ position. The unions fully accept the legislative provision stipulating that an employee with two consecutive negative evaluations is ineligible for a pay raise, he stated. They categorically reject the OKYPY’s demand to arbitrarily decide how the available pay raise funds will be distributed. Mr. Andreou emphasized that rewards for the highest-performing employees should be granted as an additional bonus by the Organization and not at the expense of the base pay increases for the rest of the staff.
At the same time, he complained that the OKYPY proposal creates serious distortions, since an administrative officer at the Agency’s headquarters would be compensated differently from a civil servant performing the exact same work at the same hospital, even if they have exactly the same performance rating.
Mr. Andreou noted that the labor unions do not rule out dialogue, but they reject the OKYPY’s position of making the issue of performance evaluations a coercive precondition for signing the contract. The unions’ proposal is to immediately renew the collective bargaining agreement based on the existing consensus regarding pay increase rates, that annual raises be granted, and that a structured dialogue follow—without pressing deadlines—to definitively resolve the evaluation system.
