No other country in the world has as many voluntary blood donors per head of the population as Cyprus, DISY MP Prodromos Alambritis said on Tuesday as the House labour committee discussed granting civil servants time off to donate blood.
MPs were discussing granting up to one day’s leave as is the case in other countries, calling on Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou to consider introducing a similar model in Cyprus.
Some countries, Alambritis said, even offered other incentives such as covering the transportation costs to blood donation centres, discount coupons for supermarkets, discounts on public transportation, and discounts on fees in public health systems.
Similar measures could be discussed to encourage more people to donate blood in Cyprus, he added.
DIKO MP Pavlos Mylonas stressed that there were differences in how regularly people donated blood, saying there were both regular and irregular donors.
He suggested that offering incentives could be beneficial and that the procedure could be streamlined to make it easier for donors to give blood.
The committee then moved on to discuss the implementation of unpaid leave for employees undergoing medically assisted reproduction procedures.
DIPA MP Michalis Yiakoumi said the proposal was crucial to fill “a social gap” to support the right of every worker to start a family, without being forced to choose between the two.
He added that the labour ministry had already assured the committee the proposal on the matter would be examined soon and that comprehensive regulation was expected by January.
“Everyone recognised the need to regulate this issue in a fair and realistic manner,” he said.
