Bureau Memur-Sen labour union Chairman Yusuf Yazgan answered the questions of the Milli Gazete before the 6th Term Collective Agreement Negotiations. Yazgan, who made a call before the collective bargaining negotiations, underlined that a strong public means a strong state.
“WE WANT A 38 PERCENT RISE FOR A TWO-YEAR PERIOD”
6th Term Collective Agreement negotiations begin. In these interviews, the most curious is the raises that public officials will receive. How much will your raise offer be? What else do you want besides the raise?
Collective bargaining negotiations between the Public Employees' Unions Committee and the Public Employers' Committee will start on 2 August 2021. Collective bargaining negotiations covering the period 2022-2023 concern an audience of more than 20 million with their families, including 3.5 million public servants and 2 million retired civil servants. We want the salaries and wages of our public servants to be increased by 21 percent in 2022, 17 percent in 2023, and 38 percent in total over two years, provided that this is done in January and at once. The increase in the inflation gap should be reflected in the salaries/wages of our public servants, effective from the month the inflation rate exceeds the salary increase rate, and the public servants should be freed from the wage-destroying effect of inflation. Inflation pressure on salaries and wages must end. We want a wage increase that crushes inflation, not one that is crushed by inflation.
You have a proposal report consisting of 101 items. What is included in this report for public officials? To summarize, what would you like to say?
Our public officials have been working in the same institution for years, specializing in their fields. Another demand of ours is the creation of expert cadres in all institutions, the appointment of our public servants who meet the necessary qualifications to become experts to these cadres, and the promotion of our qualified public servants in their own institutions. As the General Authorized Union, one of our demands that we attach importance to is the transfer of our public servants working in the auxiliary services class to the positions in the other service classes they provide according to their educational status. With the Decree Law No. 666, we will demand our previous loss of rights, especially overtime wages, additional payments and bonuses taken from our public officials. Apart from these, we have articles such as correcting the injustice of the tax bracket, increasing the wages of the chiefs, increasing the compensation for the justice services, paying the aviation compensation, paying the protective clothing aid in all institutions.
“RECHARGE OF CONTRACTORS BECOME A BLEEDING WOUND”
As Memur-Sen, you submitted your proposals to the Public Employer Committee. Among your proposals, as you have explained before, there is an article about recruiting contracted employees. In this collective agreement, will you be in a separate struggle for the recruitment of the contracted workers?
Yes. One of our primary demands that we will bring to the table will be the recruitment of all temporary and indefinite contracted personnel and the basis of permanent employment. Recruitment of contracted employees has been among the first items on our agenda as a bleeding wound for 8 years. Because making a contracted/permanent distinction between employees doing the same job, having the same place or even the same title is a practice that disrupts the working peace and upsets the employees. Public officials have security, the state has power. If public officials are strong, the state will be strong. It is not acceptable for two people doing the same job in the same place to be permanent and the other to be contracted and have different financial, social and personal rights. The patience of our contracted public servants, who have been waiting for a staff for years, has run out.
“FINAL COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT BEFORE 2023 ELECTIONS”
The 6th Term Collective Agreement is the last collective agreement before the elections to be held in 2023. Therefore, can we say that your struggle will be more difficult?
Yes, as you said, we will conclude the final collective agreement before the elections to be held in 2023. For this, the importance of the 6th Term Collective Agreement negotiations is increasing. Our public servants are an important part of our society.