|
Cyprus Employment and Labor Relations
The south's successful economy kept unemployment rates
low.
During the 1980s, unemployment rose above 3.3 percent only
once, in
1987, when it reached 3.7 percent. In 1988 unemployment
was 2.8
percent. Unemployment rates were also low in the years
just before
the Turkish invasion of 1974, averaging about 1 percent.
The
invasion and division of the island disrupted the economy,
and in
the government-controlled area unemployment averaged 16.2
percent
in 1975 and 8.5 percent in 1976. During 1977 the rate fell
to 3
percent, a rate typical for the south's economy during the
1980s.
The south's economy frequently had to contend with a
shortage
of workers and in some years was forced to import workers
from
abroad to meet the needs of various sectors, especially
the tourist
industry. This shortfall reflected the changing employment
patterns
of the economy as a whole (see
table 11, Appendix). The
only
population group that consistently had difficulty finding
employment was composed of university graduates. Their
discontent
sometimes resulted in demonstrations and demands that the
civil
service be expanded.
In 1973 about 37.5 percent of those gainfully employed
were
members of labor unions. Union membership increased
greatly between
1974 and 1977, reaching 62 percent at the end of 1977.
This trend
continued, and in 1988 labor unions represented more than
80
percent of the work force.
The most prominent unions in the government-controlled
area
were the left-wing Pan-Cyprian Federation of Labor
(Pankypria
Ergatiki Omospondia--PEO) with about 70,000 members at the
end of
the 1980s, and the right-wing Cyprus Workers'
Confederation
(Synomospondia Ergaton Kyprou--SEK) with about 50,000
members.
Third in importance was the civil servants' labor union,
with a
membership of about 13,000. Employers were organized in
various
associations represented in the Cyprus Employers' and
Industrialists' Federation.
Terms and conditions of employment were negotiated
either
directly between employee and employer or through
collective
bargaining between trade unions and employers'
organizations. The
government's policy was to remain largely uninvolved in
these
negotiations unless a deadlock had been reached or its
participation had been requested, when it acted through
its
Industrial Relations Section, a part of the Ministry of
Labor and
Social Insurance. This section routinely acted to prevent
laboremployer discord by providing both groups with guidance
and
information about good industrial relations. As a result,
the
number of working days lost to strikes was among the
lowest in the
Western world relative to the size of the work force.
In the 1980s, wages rose faster than prices. A part of
the wage
increase was brought about through wage indexation, with
automatic
quarterly wage increases equal to about half the inflation
rate.
Even at this rate, however, wage increases could be
troublesome for
the economy. In 1988, for example, average wages and
salaries
increased 4.5 percent in real terms, but exceeded the
productivity
gain of 3.5 percent. The relative scarcity of labor and
rising
labor costs affected the economy in the 1980s and were
expected to
continue to do in the 1990s.
Data as of January 1991
|
