Cyprus will introduce legislative measures to promote flexible working arrangements in the civil service by the end of May, President Christodoulides said Tuesday.
The proposed legislation, which will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval, aims to help civil servants balance their professional and family lives, Christodoulides told attendees at the 62nd annual conference of the civil servants’ union PASYDY in Nicosia.
The measures include allowing parents of children under 15 and caregivers to reduce their working hours by up to two hours per day, extending flexible working hours from 1.5 to 2 hours, and gradually implementing hybrid teleworking options.
“What matters particularly today regarding the payment of CoLA is its fairer distribution in a way that truly helps those in need,” Christodoulides said, adding that discussions would continue soon.
“The recent implementation of legislation for filling promotional positions based on objective, merit-based criteria and the introduction of assessment centres to evaluate candidates using modern methods aims precisely in this direction,” Christodoulides said.
He noted that the new civil servant evaluation system implemented in 2024 addresses “long-standing distortions that we all knew about but did not dare to touch.”
The government has already taken significant decisions to increase the disposable income of civil servants, including granting general salary increases after approximately 15 years and implementing accelerated salary progression for lower-paid employees, the president said.
Christodoulides stressed that the government is also working on rationalising the state payroll and containing its growth rate, promising proper consultation with PASYDY and other trade unions.
“We will not follow policies that led us to 2013,” he said, referring to Cyprus’s financial crisis, which he described as resulting from “irresponsible policies” that particularly affected civil servants.
The president highlighted digital transformation as key to more effective public service operation, citing progress through the gov.cy portal and the “Digital Citizen” application launched in December 2024, which allows for the creation and storage of official documents in digital form.
Christodoulides concluded by stressing that increased productivity in the civil service would contribute to further development and strengthening of the Cypriot economy’s competitiveness, which continues to record one of the highest growth rates in the Eurozone.
“In this great effort to promote the necessary reforms for modernising our state, we approach PASYDY and all social partners as fellow travellers,” he said. (İNCYPRUS)
