Employer-commissioned opinion deems regulating CoLA unconstitutional

Employers’ and industrialists’ federation (Oev) and the Cyprus chamber of commerce and industry (Keve) have received legal counsel about regulating the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA) for the private sector by law, which they said on Thursday was indeed unconstitutional.

The legal advice was prepared by “renowned constitutionalist” Achilleas Emilianides and has already been sent to President Nikos Christodoulides.

Oev and Keve expressed “disappointment and deep concern over the unilateral handling of the specific issue” and call on the government “to remain dedicated to the system of tripartite cooperation and the industrial relations code”, agreed on by the social partners in 1977.

If the president “chooses the legal path”, they said, “labour relations will be transferred from negotiation and cooperation to courts and litigation”.

In his opinion, Emilianides said regulating CoLA for the private sector by law imposed terms that had not been agreed on by the parties through personal contracts or collective agreements, a right protected by the constitution.

He said that in such an event, one party would be deprived of the freedom to determine the terms of their contract, rendering any legislative intervention incompatible with the constitution.

“I conclude that, under existing case law, the legislative imposition of CoLA on employees with private law personal employment contracts appears to be in conflict with article 26 of the constitution,” Emilianides said.

A three-hour general strike last week saw the island brought to a standstill, with workers demanding that CoLA be restored in its full, original form, stressing that the allowance preserves workers’ purchasing power, supports living standards and consumption, and helps enforce collective agreements

Public services and public transport were the most affected, with more than 50 flights and 15,000 airline passengers impacted by the strike, while trade unionists across the island took to the streets.

Trade union Peo’s secretary-general Sotiroula Charalambous had on Monday said the strike would be “the first step in a series of measures, until we achieve the goal, which is collective and universal”.

Earlier in the year, former Oev chairman Antonis Antoniou had expressed his distaste for CoLA, saying it “should have disappeared”.

“We believe that it should have disappeared. There are other tools for employees to achieve their progress, but we accept to continue it with some variations, with a modernisation which is consistent with the economic realities of recent decades,” he said.

His views were echoed by Keve chairman Philokypros Rousounides, who also described it at the time as “an anachronistic institution, which needs improvement or replacement with a new mechanism”.