Mousiouttas pledges twice-weekly talks and vows dialogue will continue “even daily” as government moves to defend overhaul of pension system
Cyprus’s labour minister has moved to counter what he described as inaccurate public statements about the country’s pending pension reform, after Finance Ministry officials briefed social partners on the cost of the overhaul at a meeting of the Labour Advisory Board.
Marinos Mousiouttas said the session marked another important step in the process, describing the discussion as constructive and noting that officials had answered a series of questions raised by unions and employer representatives. He said it had been agreed that talks would now continue twice a week, and that Wednesday’s Social Insurance Council meeting would go through the draft legislation article by article to resolve technical queries.
The minister added that he had offered to hold meetings of the Labour Advisory Board or its technical committee even on a daily basis if needed, in order to clear up any remaining technical questions and keep the dialogue moving forward.
Addressing recent public commentary on isolated aspects of the reform, which he said contained inaccuracies and risked misinforming the public, Mousiouttas said differing views were welcome but needed to be grounded in the actual data and provisions of the proposed reform. He said such commentary had not come from members of the Labour Advisory Board itself, and pointed to specific examples from the reform package to illustrate his point.
“Ours is the philosophy we have put forward. I believe that by listening to our partners we become wiser, because everyone has something to contribute,” he said. “I don’t expect that we’ll convince everyone or that everyone will convince us, but I’m confident that because everyone is moving in the same direction, in the end we will be able to reach something we all want.”
The minister stressed that the goal was to implement the reform in a way that delivered a genuine improvement for citizens, without jeopardising the sustainability of either the Social Insurance Fund or the public finances more broadly.
