Cyprus civil servants cancel strike as tax plan shelved

Civil servants in Cyprus on Thursday called off strike action after the government shelved plans to tax lucrative one-off retirement bonuses as part of efforts to reduce the budget deficit Public sector unions backed out of the industrial action that had been set for Friday after President Nicos Anastasiades assured them during a meeting that the disputed tax was off the agenda.
The eurozone member says it needs to make more cuts to the state payroll to meet requirements set out by international lenders under a 10-billion-euro ($12.9 billion) bailout agreement reached in March 2013. "On the government side there is no intention to tax retirement bonuses or further reduce pensions and salaries of state employees," government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said after the 11th-hour meeting.