AKEL: There is an urgent need to launch a social dialogue to set a minimum wage for workers not covered by collective agreements and measures against the deregulation of labour relations

Statement by Andreas Fakontis, AKEL MP and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance Issues

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 20 November 2018, Nicosia

For AKEL the establishment of a minimum wage is imperative. The minimum wage should apply only those workers who are working in companies which, for various reasons, are not covered by a collective agreement. However, where a minimum wage is to be established, this must be done through the formulation of a minimal framework of labour rights through structured social dialogue covering at least wages/salaries, working time and overtime, holidays and the Providence Fund.

For the rest of the working people who are covered by collective agreements and a minimum wage is set, the obligation for their universal implementation by all employers-businesses must be legislated.

The introduction of a ‘national’ minimum wage, if done fragmentarily, without procedures and outside the framework of the labour relations system, does not in itself meet in a comprehensive way the urgent need to re-regulate the labour market, but rather is likely to have the opposite effect. This will most probably result in a leveling of wages to the rate of the minimum wage, as well as to the legalization of the breach of collective agreements by employers.

The debate about a “national” minimum wage is a pressing need and needs to start immediately, but it should be part of a wider debate on measures that should be taken against the deregulation of labour relations. It should be done through a structured social dialogue involving the government, the House of Representatives, trade unions and employers’ organizations.

We call on the Minister of Labour to take the initiative to immediately invite all involved parties to start a structured social dialogue, both to set a minimum wage there and where workers are not covered by collective agreements, and to take measures to re-regulate the labour market.