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Unions demand concrete wage hike offer: ‘It’s not a state secret’
The third round of collective bargaining talks took place yesterday in Ankara to handle the major problems of and requests from the major service branches of civil servants. State Minister Hayati Yazıcı presided over the session and the civil servants' unions were represented by Ahmet Gündoğdu, the president of the Civil Servants' Trade Union (Memur-Sen), the largest Turkish civil servants' union.
Turkish Public Workers' Labor Union (Kamu-Sen) representatives also took seats at the negotiation table, while the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) continued its boycott, which it started in the first session on Monday, claiming the talks were “illegitimate” for not including the right of collective agreement with strike.
Entering the Prime Ministry central office to attend the meeting, Gündoğdu spared a few minutes to speak to the press to reveal his side's stance on major issues. He said the government had not yet put anything on the table about the financial issues and went on: "This is not a state secret. The government needs to announce its offer soon." Officials from the Finance Ministry, which is responsible for guiding the government on the economic limits of wage hikes, however, say they are still working on the best possible option for the wage hike.
Speaking on Wednesday during the second session of the talks, government officials said it was impossible to announce a specific wage increase for the time being. Gündoğdu said some of the issues the unions bring to the table regard the workers while numerous others are related to the country as a whole, including taking further steps to expand democracy. "We are aware that no solution will arise for some of these issues on the table, but still we wanted to lay forth our opinions on them," he said.
The third round of talks dealt with the problems of contracted personnel, which are commonly known as temporary workers. The woes civil servants often face in the payment of working capital, especially regarding the health care system, was another agenda item in yesterday's meeting. Gündoğdu also said they would bring the local administrations' issue to the discussion table during the third round of the talks. He claimed that the lack of a single unit in local administrations to address the problems and needs of civil servants makes it necessary to create a special ministry for local administrations.
He said Memur-Sen alone has so far signed "social balance contracts" with over 400 municipalities to improve the conditions of civil servants working under the roofs of these local administrations. The workers, their managers and the unions are extremely happy with these contracts, he said, asking the Court of Accounts not to bother these municipalities with stringent inspections over payments to their workers.
Furthermore, Gündoğdu said civil servants working in the Directorate of Religious Affairs continue to experience problems. The government must swiftly pass an organizational law for the Directorate of Religious Affairs, which has been pending since 1970s, to provide personnel for 4,000 vacant positions that need to be filled soon and remove the minimum age limit to be eligible for enrollment in the special courses that teach how to read the Quran in Arabic script, he said. The most controversial demand of the civil servants' unions, which is to bestow civil servants with the right to collective agreements with the government and a right to go on strike in the absence of a satisfactory offer, will be discussed in the fourth round of talks, which is scheduled to be held today. The issue will also be the main topic of a symposium organized for today with the participation of the heads of the civil servants' unions.
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