Ten years of unfulfilled commitments

 

Statement by AKEL MP Andros Kafkalias and President of the Parliamentary Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance Committee, following the debate on the 2023 Budgets of the Ministry of Labour and the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare

25 November 2022

The latest budget of the Anastasiades government is yet another administrative budget, which fails to promote policies to substantially strengthen the welfare state and create preconditions for a fairer distribution of the wealth being produced.

In total, during the ten years of the Anastasiades-DISY government, working people have lost huge incomes, which have been turned into capital’s profit. Particularly in the current year, with the high cost of living and rising price hikes the loss of working people’s incomes is expected to be even greater.

All this isn’t accidental, but the result of the neoliberal policies pursued by this government, which, with decisions such as the replacement of permanent and stable employment with the purchase of services market and part-time work and the unacceptable regulations on shop opening hours in the retail sector, is the deregulation of the labour market and further pressure being put on wages. This is precisely why in recent years in Cyprus the phenomenon of the working poor has been growing.

The Minimum Wage Decree is far below the expectations of working people, which in fact erodes collective agreements and institutionalises cheap labour.

Moreover, and while inflation is nibbling away at one-tenth of working people’s incomes, the government is backtracking on the Cost of Living Allowance, taking a stand against the abolition of the 12 per cent penalty on those choosing to retire at 63 and is failing or refusing to take measures to support households to address the issue of poverty. The government also refuses to discuss an increase in the level of the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) benefit, which was set in 2014 at €480 for singles, and reduces the GMI budget by €15 million in 2023, which is a provocation for society.

All these years, government officials have limited themselves to the bare minimum in providing support to society, with the most vulnerable groups of the population under the greatest pressure. Ten years onwards and what is being recorded is the huge delays in the review and payment of the GMI, pensioner’s low allowance and Social Security Fund benefits and pensions, the unfulfilled pledges of the government ruling forces to create independent legislation for persons with disabilities that is in line with the principles of the UN Convention, their unfulfilled commitments to modernise important legislation such as the Children’s Act, the Old People’s Homes Act and the Adoption Act, as well as their unfulfilled commitments to modernise Social Welfare Services.

What is needed is change and ridding society of these policies and the development of a real welfare state, for work with dignified wages and rights and an adequate safety net for vulnerable groups.