A fresh dispute between trade unions and the State Health Services Organisation (SHSO) is heading towards a public showdown, with Cypriot patients likely to feel the consequences, according to Phileleftheros sources. Six unions held a joint meeting on Thursday to map out their next steps, and a public statement setting out their grievances is being prepared.
The collective agreement that governs staff at state hospitals expired in December 2025, after being signed — itself the product of fierce disagreement and public clashes — following protracted negotiations. Talks on renewal have since broken down repeatedly.
What are the unions demanding?
The unions’ central demand is the inclusion of salary scales in the new collective agreement — covering all staff employed directly on SHSO contracts, as distinct from civil servants seconded to the organisation. The SHSO board has rejected this outright on multiple occasions.
At the first round of talks, a preliminary framework for the new agreement was drawn up and put to the SHSO board. The board said no. The SHSO then tabled a counter-proposal under which the new agreement would not include salary scales but would set out a clear timetable for consultations on the issue before the next renewal. The board rejected that too.
The unions then proposed a two-year agreement, with dialogue on salary scales beginning and concluding within 2027 and the scales themselves incorporated from January 1, 2028. The SHSO board rejected this as well. The six unions have since declared there is no room for further concessions.
Why is the government being called in?
Following Thursday’s joint meeting, the unions decided to formally request government intervention — specifically from the Health Minister. A public statement is being prepared, according to union representatives who spoke to Phileleftheros.
The legislation problem
A separate but related issue concerns a change to the law governing the SHSO. Under current legislation, pay rises for SHSO-contracted staff are awarded every three years. Both sides had previously agreed this should be changed to annual increases, and a decision was taken to amend the law accordingly.
Union representatives told Phileleftheros that the SHSO was slow to prepare the amendment, which in turn delayed the Health Ministry from sending it first to the Law Office for legal vetting and then to parliament for a vote. Parliamentary elections then intervened. The unions say the only reason they did not push back harder in the intervening period was to keep dialogue alive.
Doctors’ separate grievance
The doctors’ union PASYKY has a distinct grievance from the other unions, centring on the establishment of staffing structures at state hospitals — a process that had been included in the previous collective agreement.
After the agreement expired at the end of December 2025, PASYKY wrote to the Labour Relations Department requesting its intervention. The department invited both sides to a joint meeting on February 26.
On March 9, PASYKY wrote back to the Labour Relations Department stating it considered Article 14 of the collective agreement to have been violated. On March 16, the department replied that its role at this stage was that of mediator and that dialogue should continue.
When the two-month consultation period ended, PASYKY wrote again on May 6, citing a lack of meaningful progress and asking the Labour Relations Department to take a fresh position on compliance with the collective agreement.
The €6 million deadline
Beyond the contract dispute, a separate financial issue is pressing. Doctors receive financial incentives on top of their salaries for services provided under the General Health System (GHS), and a payment is now at risk of being delayed.
PASYKY has written to the SHSO warning that consultations on how to distribute the payment must be completed within days if the money is to be paid out in June’s payroll.
The union’s letter to the SHSO stated that under a October 29, 2025 agreement, an enhanced incentive of six million euros is due to be paid annually each June for the previous year, and that the distribution of this sum among clinics and specialist doctors is subject to union consultation.
The letter said the consultation must be finalised and the relevant figures sent to SHSO and state payroll departments by early June at the latest, making completion within May a practical and administrative necessity.
