Workers at Cyprus Turkish Petroleum (K-Pet) on Saturday brought to an end their strike after the company reversed its decision to lay off nine workers, the Turkish Cypriot federation of revolutionary trade unions (Dev-Is) Semih Kolozali said.
He told newspaper Yeniduzen that following negotiations between fuel workers’ union Petrol-Is, which is affiliated to Dev-Is, and the company, it was decided that the nine workers would remain at the company and be found new responsibilities.
Later, he told news website Kibris Postasi that the supply of fuel to petrol stations operated by K-Pet will recommence on Sunday.
The initial position to lay the nine workers off had proved unpopular among both trade unions and the Turkish Cypriot authorities, with ‘labour minister’ Oguzhan Hasipoglu having expressed his opposition to the layoffs on Wednesday.
“I did not find the motions for termination notices to be in accordance with proper procedure, and I expressed [to K-Pet] that I rejected them,” he said, before adding that “in our view, they remain employed”.
He also expressed doubt regarding K-Pet’s reported position that it needed to lay the nine workers off so as to save money.
“The company is profitable. It would be possible to utilise those nine workers in different roles. Could nine people bankrupt such a large company? I leave that to their judgement, now,” he said.
K-Pet is the largest supplier of fuel to the Turkish Cypriot community, and the strike had as such raised questions regarding the availability of fuel, particularly with the Republic of Cyprus’ authorities reporting that Greek Cypriots are increasingly using Turkish Cypriot petrol stations to fuel their cars, amid rising prices at the pump.
As of Saturday evening, the average price of a litre of 95-octane petrol in the Republic of Cyprus stood at €1.759, while the average price of a litre of diesel stood at €2.018.
By contrast, at Turkish Cypriot petrol stations, 95-octane petrol is sold for 77.12TL (€1.38) per litre and diesel now sold for 76TL (€1.36) per litre.