Larnaca Port workers on Monday morning went on a strike after two crane operators were fired by the management company.
The strikers described the layoffs as vindictive and demand their immediate revocation as well as the intervention of the Labour Ministry, Philenews reported on Monday.
In a joint statement, OMEPEGE-SEK and SEGDAMELIN-PEO trade unions said the company fired them “while the process of negotiating and concluding a Collective Labour Agreement based on the Industrial Relations Code is pending.”
The announcement also noted that the retaliatory dismissals ignored and circumvented the Industrial Relations Code and laws protecting trade union freedoms.
“The workers are reacting collectively to protect their rights, the right to organise, collective bargaining and to negotiate collective agreements,” it added.
The vindictive action, the unions argued, takes place in a section where the company manages public property.
The strikers are calling for the dismissals to be withdrawn and for a process of collective bargaining to begin on the basis of the demands already sent by their side and their unions.
