Collective Bargaining, Economic Policy, Türkiye

On 27 August the KESK public services confederation organised a national strike in protest at the collective agreement signed by the government and the Memur Sen trade union. KESK has a range of key demands which the agreement fails to address and is angry that it was shut out of the negotiations. The confederation argues that the pay rises foreseen in the agreement are inadequate to ensure protection against inflation and it doesn’t include any measures to deal with employment security, workplace democracy or the right to proper collective bargaining. EPSU sent a solidarity message.

The KESK public sector confederation has set out its main demands for the public sector negotiations that started at the beginning of August. The priority will be restoring the 8.5% loss in purchasing power for public sector workers over the last two years and along with a further increase to cover inflation that the confederation estimates to be higher than 50% in contrast to the official figure of just over 30%. The other key demands include ending privatisation, increasing public investment and public employment, reducing working time and strengthening job security. KESK also wants action

Unions have reacted negatively to new government proposals for economic transformation. The unions are particularly concerned about the possbility of changes to severance payments which they see as a fundamental employment right especially where workers experience widespread restructuring and precarious employment conditions. The unions are also worried about plans to give a greater role to private pensions and about possible changes to taxation. While proposals for a reduction in indirect taxation might be welcome the unions are unhappy that the measures could further reduce the contribution

The FES trade union-linked research institute has published a new study on the recent developments in Turkish trade unions. It looks at membership in the six confederations, the legal framework and the attack on the right to strike. Civil service unions face a ban on both collective bargaining and the right to strike. The report includes information on union density and the organising of sub-contracted workers where there have been membership gains.

(September 2016) EPSU has written to the major of the Aviclar local authority in Istanbul calling on him to reinstate 43 workers who were sacked earlier this year without good reason. The workers have been campaigning for reinstatement for over four months with support from the local community and at national level from their union Belediye-Is. EPSU has also called on the mayor to negotiate with the trade union and the local worker representatives (see letter).Update: The union has reached an agreement with the city council that will result in the reinstatement of dismissed workers (7 October