Paphos hotel workers on 24-hour strike

The hoteliers association hit out at workers on Friday who has gone on a lightning strike in Paphos.

Workers at three hotels in Paphos started a 24-hour strike on Thursday, demanding the signing of a collective agreement and payment of the Cost of Living allowance.

Speaking on the picket line, trade union Peo’s Paphos secretary Nikos Savvides said the Paphos labour relations department had ordered the strike be called off as a condition for a meeting to be held to resolve the dispute.

“The workers rejected this blackmail,” he said.

He added that the hotels’ operating company is not complying with legislation regarding the Cost-of-living allowance and is also not paying workers a 13th salary or offering just compensation for Sunday work.

Hoteliers’ association (Pasyxe) general director Philokypros Roussounides reacted furiously to the strike on television channel AlphaNews.

He described the strike as “unilateral, irregular, unjustified, and extortionate.”

Additionally, he pointed out that hotels are coming to the end of the busy summer period and said workers had “shown an unprecedented indifference and irresponsibility” towards that fact.

“They are exposing the industry and exposing themselves,” he added.