By Con Charalambous
Employers and unions closed the CoLA chapter following six months of deliberations, tense exchanges, disagreements and government proposals which swung between a warning strike, near deals and deadlocks and culminating in today's Presidential Palace ceremony cementing an agreement in principle, after the President met the unions for the last time this morning.
Speaking before the leaders of trade unions SEK, PEO, DEOK and PASYDY, the Employers and Industrialists Organisation, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as the ministers involved in negotiations, Finance Makis Keravnos and Labour Yiannis Panayiotou, President Christodoulides said that an issue pending for more than 15 years, mostly as a result of the financial crisis, 'has now been permanently resolved, with respect for the trilateral institution of dialogue and good prospects for the future'.
Nicos Christodoulides noted that following responsible and constructive dialogue, a permanent deal has been achieved, adding that the government had received CoLA at 50% amid danger of labour disputes and has now turned it into a balanced and permanent arrangement.
'More than 55 thousand people are being added to the payment, extending the institution for the benefit of employees', he said, referring to the fact that it will now be raised to 100%.
The President placed the deal within a wider financial scope, noting that the positive course of the economy has created the possibility of implementing policies improving the daily lives of citizens, through 'responsible public finance policy, upgrading of the country's credit rating and the return of international trust'.
Labour peace has been protected, the President added, with the cooperation of all social actors, ensuring the stable operation of the institution, by raising it to 100%, connecting CoLA with the minimum wage and policies to extend it to additional workers.
'It wasn't easy or a given, but convergences and compromises between different goals and approaches have made the result even more important', the President said, hailing employers and unions for the maturity, responsibility and mutual respect that they showed, achieving a solution through social dialogue.
He further thanked Keravnos and Panayiotou for their efforts, through collective work in shaping a CoLA framework towards social justice and fiscal stability.
'We will continue our efforts, focused on the trilateral social coooperation, respecting collective negotiations between social partners and protecting the minimum wage according to the recent European Directive', the President concluded, emphasising the healthy functioning of labour relations.
Optimism and determination follow in implementing major reforms that serve society, such as the CoLA agreement, was the President's assessment.