Union’s bargain with Turkish gov't to cause public workers losing out in salary

Aysel Alp ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

The Civil Servants’ Trade Union signed a collective bargaining agreement with the government on Aug. 7. AA photo

The collective agreement recently signed between the government and public workers looks profitable for only 2014 but it will lead to a loss in salaries from 2015.

The Civil Servants’ Trade Union (Memur-Sen) signed a collective bargaining agreement with the government on Aug. 7. According to the agreement, the government will raise base salaries by 175 Turkish Liras (net rise is 123 liras) in 2014, a 3 percent raise in the first half of 2015 and another 3 percent raise in the second half of 2015.

If Memur-Sen accepted the government’s proposal that offered a 3 percent rise on salaries every six months, the base salaries would be higher when the union and the government started talks for collective bargaining for the 2016-2017 period.

The calculations show that the agreement is advantageous for the public workers whose salaries are below 2,100 liras, while the others, whose salaries are above 2,100 liras, including police officers, doctors, lawyers, pulpit orators and professors, will be condemned to lose from 2015.

The Turkish Public Workers’ Labor Union (Kamu-Sen) and the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) said while the Memur-Sen had 30 days for negotiations with the government, they ended the talks in two “closed” sessions. They also criticized that the salary rise of the employees, including 2.4 million public workers and 1.8 million retired public workers, wasn’t satisfied.