Few days before the visit of 35,000 tourists from Central Europe, the restaurants and leisure centers in free Famagusta will remain closed after a dispute between the restaurant owners and the Labour Ministry on the employment of foreign manpower. The conflict between the two parties was the major issue of talks at the session of the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

The session was attended by the CTO Chairman, Fotis Fotiou, who emphasized that 15,000 tourists (organized) from Germany and Austria will be visiting Cyprus on Monday. “We have reached an agreement for the visit of 60,000 German and Austrian tourists more in 2006. However, these visits will be cancelled if there are problems in the service”, he noted.

On the other hand, restaurant owners insist that the Labour Ministry is responsible for the shortage of staff. Restaurant owners have requested the renewal of the employment permits of their staff with “summary procedures” and had appealed to the Labour Minister last year to review the issue. Mr. Taliadoros recommended the employment of Bulgarian and Romanian workers (to join the EU soon) but not the employment of workers from third countries and criticized owners for the mass dismissal of their staff in November.