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23 November, 2009
Turkish public sector employees have legally had the right to organise and form their own unions since 2001, as stipulated by the Public Employees' Trade Unions Act No. 4688. Although the law recognizes the right to organise, there are numerous groups of employees who are excluded, lawyers, civil servants at the Ministry of Defence and Turkish Armed Forces, employees at penal institutions, special security personnel, public employees "in positions of trust", presidents of universities, and directors of high schools.
In terms of negotiating and taking strike action, these workers have no rights at all. Act 4688 allows for “collective consultative talks” for the negotiating of working conditions with government, it is then the government that makes the final decision on salaries, allowances, compensation, and bonuses. Likewise, there is still no formally recognised right to strike for public employees. This clearly is not in line with core ILO Convention 98. The International Labour Organisation repeatedly criticises this and urges the Turkish Government to make necessary modifications to the Act.
Centre Sami Evren, President of KESK, right Bircan Akyıldız, President of Türkiye Kamu-Sen
The collective consultative talks have proved inadequate in achieving the deserved working conditions for public sector employees, two major Turkish trade union confederations, Türkiye Kamu-Sen and KESK, have decided to take joint strike action on 25 November to urge the government to change the law and recognise the right to bargain and strike. On that day, both confederations report, aircrafts, trains and ships will not work, education will not be done, taxes will not be collected, “all the public services will be stopped”.
The President of Türkiye Kamu-Sen Bircan Akyıldız stated that eight years of commitment to collective consultative talks have produced nothing for workers. “The strike on 25 November will not just be done on behalf of Kamu-Sen and KESK, but also for defending the rights of all public emloyees”, he added. The President of KESK, Sami Evren, stated that the parties have never bargained from equal positions during the collective consultative talks, leading to the Government ignoring the demands of public employees. “We have exhausted all internal judicial possibilities, and then applied to the European Human Rights Court, which ruled that Turkish public employees should have the right to bargain collectively”, he added.
The ICEM has affiliates from both confederations and fully supports the strike on 25 November, in line with the decision of the ICEM Turkish Coordinating Committee, which met on 2 November in Izmir. In his letter to the Presidents of Türkiye Kamu-Sen and KESK, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda has conveyed the solidarity of the whole ICEM family to the Turkish public employees in their struggle for bargaining and striking rights. “We cordially convey to you our deepest sympathy and solidarity for your rights which are guaranteed by international conventions that have been ratified by Turkey. It is our firm belief that your struggle, fought since the 1990s, for empowered unions with all rights, will be successful. The joint strike on 25 November is a clear signal for this. The ICEM has been and will always stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this honourable and rightful fight”.