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Workers in Ministry of Education programs are taking their demands to the Presidential Palace on Thursday after spending the summer without a salary or unemployment benefits.
The employees, who work across support programs run by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, rejected a proposal presented by Education Minister Athina Michaelidou during an Aug. 31 meeting. Their unions said the offer failed to resolve the two central disputes: access to unemployment benefits and the opening of positions for the new school year.
Members of PASEY-PEO and OEKDY-SEK will gather at the PASYDY headquarters before marching to the Presidential Palace. The unions are calling for the direct intervention of President Nikos Christodoulides.
At the heart of the dispute are workers who have completed 30 months of service and have been left without any income since June. Although Michaelidou pledged to send a new letter to the Legal Service asking it to reconsider their eligibility for unemployment benefits, workers said another review would not pay bills that have already been piling up for three months.
Fewer than 100 other employees who have not completed 30 months in the same programs have also been left without work following a government decision, according to the unions.
Those employees now risk losing even fixed-term positions this year, particularly in adult education, the State Institutes of Further Education, known as KIE, and other support programs. The unions claim the ministry is approaching appointed teachers to cover some of those needs through overtime while experienced support workers remain unemployed.
For the workers affected, the dispute is not simply about administrative procedures. It means an entire summer without money for rent, loan payments, electricity bills, groceries, and preparations for the new school year.
The unions acknowledged that progress was made on several secondary issues. These included plans to advertise positions in the public primary education service, the pilot program placing a second kindergarten teacher in classrooms, fixed-term contracts in other programs, and the awarding of points for previous service.
There was also agreement on simplifying permission for employees to take a second job and appointing a ministry contact person to deal directly with the unions.
But workers say none of those concessions solves their immediate problem.
They are demanding the payment of unemployment benefits to those who qualify or a political decision providing salaries for all 12 months of the year. They also want employment legislation governing the support programs to be implemented immediately and positions for workers with fewer than 30 months of service to be advertised without further delay.
Previous experience must also be recognized and reflected in the points used to select employees, the unions said.
The workers warned that they are prepared to take further action unless the government provides clear and timely solutions.
“Workers have been trapped by government decisions and remain without income for months,” the unions said, adding that they would no longer accept delays or what they described as the disregard of their years of service.
