‘No need to worry’ about shortages despite Turkish Cypriot fuel workers’ strike

There is “no need to worry” about the possibility of fuel shortages impacting the Turkish Cypriot community, Turkish Cypriot petrol station owners’ association chairman Levent Cagdal said on Wednesday, despite workers at the community’s largest fuel supplier, Cyprus Turkish Petroleum (K-Pet) having announced an indefinite strike on Tuesday. “There is no cause for concern for now. Fuel is not being supplied to K-Pet stations as a result of the strike, but fuel stocks are currently available, and therefore, there is no need to worry,” he said. On the matter of the strike itself, he said that efforts are underway to “mediate to find a solution”, before saying that “other oil companies are continuing to supply oil” to petrol stations belonging to other companies. The strike had initially been called after K-Pet announced plans to lay off nine workers, with Turkish Cypriot fuel workers’ trade union Petrol-Is saying on Tuesday that a meeting of union representatives, K-Pet representatives, and ‘labour minister’ Oguzhan Hasipoglu had ended without result. It said that K-Pet had requested a 24-hour period to evaluate a proposal to rehire the nine dismissed workers and to “properly address the staffing needs associated with those nine individuals”, but that with those 24 hours having passed, they had decided to strike indefinitely. Additionally, it said that an investigation carried out by the Turkish Cypriot ‘finance ministry’ had found “procedural irregularities” in the K-Pet board of directors’ meeting in which the nine dismissals were decided upon, and that “not all board members” were informed of the decision. “While the company’s financial health is important to us, it has already generated significant profits. Our union demands that the labour ministry take these procedural irregularities into account and reject the dismissals,” it said. Hasipoglu says he ‘rejected’ dismissal of nine K-Pet workers On Wednesday, Hasipoglu told Haber Kibris Web TV that “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”. As such, he said, “in our view, they remain employed” at K-Pet, despite the company having informed them that they had been dismissed. 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. The strike, and questions regarding the availability of fuel, come 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 Wednesday, 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 €2.019. By contrast, at Turkish Cypriot petrol stations, 95-octane petrol is sold for 77.12TL (€1.40) per litre and diesel now sold for 76TL (€1.38) per litre.