WORKERS in the construction industry – one of the sectors most badly hit from recession – are due to strike today and tomorrow island-wide because employers are not taking any action to protect their jobs, unions SEK, PEO and DEOK have said.

“The strike will take place because for three years now, employees are being fired, are forced to join the queues at unemployment offices… and are being replaced with cheap labour,” the unions said in a joint announcement read out during a news conference yesterday.

The unions said there were some 10,000 workers hailing from the EU who “are unorganised” and are not part of collective agreements that tend to guarantee better benefits for employees.

However, PEO’s Michalis Papanicolaou said that in 2008, shortly before the construction and real estate sectors started shrinking after unsustainable growth,  “there may have been even more [EU workers]”.

Some 46,000 people are employed in the sector, roughly the same number of people as in 2008, the unions said yesterday.

Numbers have remained stable because projects have shifted to more labour-intensive ones rather than say roadworks that require fewer workers, Papanicolaou said.

And the unions conceded that in 2008, the labour ministry stopped issuing work permits to third-country nationals who were seeking employment in the construction sector, effectively guaranteeing more jobs for Cypriots and other EU workers.

But SEK’s Yiannakis Ioannou said the unions have been pushing for stricter control on the industry and have proposed the creation of a committee to regulate the sector in all districts, issuing licences to prospective employees.

“We do not have the right to impose barriers on EU workers, but we have the right to support policies formed on correct criteria,” Ioannou said.

Some 1,506 construction workers were registered as unemployed in December last year, from a total of 41,625 of registered jobless. The unions said yesterday that at least 6,000 construction workers have no job.

Unemployment is expected to reach 13.8 per cent this year and peak at 14.2 per cent in 2014 before dropping a year later. The construction industry continues shrinking with cement sales falling, given a lower demand for concrete. The property bubble burst in 2009, following four years that that saw prices triple.

The unions were due to meet with labour minister Sotiroulla Charalambous yesterday afternoon as the cement makers warned that a strike might be a death blow to the struggling industry.

MPs on Thursday rejected the cabinet’s new Immovable Property Tax (IPT) rates, opting instead to postpone discussions on the grounds that more time was needed to study the provisions in depth.

The government wanted the bill approved before Monday, when Eurozone finance ministers are scheduled to discuss the island’s bailout bid.

The bill, approved by the cabinet on Wednesday and submitted to parliament on Thursday, is in line with a preliminary bailout agreement and in theory it could fetch the government some €120 million in 2013.

The government requested the bill to be classified as urgent, meaning parliament would have to discuss and vote on it immediately.

However, the government’s request was rejected by majority vote – 31 to 17 with only ruling AKEL voting in favour. There were no abstentions.

Main opposition DISY deputy chairman Averof Neophytou stressed that despite the postponement, a clear message must be sent to international lenders that parliament remained committed to approve additional property tax after the necessary time was given to lawmakers to study the bill.

“We do not have all the information before us,” Neophytou said during the lunchtime session.

DIKO’s Nicolas Papadopoulos echoed Neophytou in that parliament remained committed to passing a tax bill, adding too that more time was needed to “examine the bill in depth.”

EDEK MP Giorgos Varnava felt the need to stress that this should not be interpreted as an attempt to protect privileged groups.

AKEL however, accused the opposition of trying to postpone discussion until after the presidential elections in mid-February, although House President Yiannakis Omirou said efforts would be made to put the issue back on the agenda and call another session before the elections once some discussion had taken place at committee level.

Nicos Katsourides, the party’s parliamentary representative accused his colleagues of hypocrisy. “In all the years I have been an MP, whenever an IPT bill came to parliament it ended up being shredded to pieces,” he said, adding that under the provisions it was clear that 78 per cent of all property owners would not be affected by the new tax. Wealthy property owners on the other hand, would be.

Addressing his opposition colleagues, Katsourides pointed out that no one had expressed any concerns when parliament hastily passed a batch of austerity measures in December that involved tax and other hikes affecting the man in the street.

Katsourides said the opposition’s intention was clear: “to not discuss the bill before the presidential elections.” “If your intentions are honest then come back in one week,” he added.

Earlier in the day the bill was discussed at the House Finance Committee.

Inland Revenue boss Giorgos Poufos and permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry Andreas Assiotis made it clear to deputies that even a small change would throw off the state’s calculation designed to bring in €120 million.