Speaking on the 43rd anniversary of the Hizmet-İş Union, Hak-İş/Hizmet-İş labour union President Mahmut Arslan said that practices such as short-time work allowance and unpaid leave bring many problems, and said, "There are workers who are sentenced to 39 liras per day. Although it was stated in our meeting with the Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services that "unpaid leave will be applied to workers who cannot get short work allowance", this has not been done in practice. "Employers exploited this gap and sentenced workers to financial difficulties."
Mahmut Arslan, President of Hak-İş Confederation and Service-İş Confederation, spoke at the 43rd Anniversary of the Establishment of Hizmet-İş Union and the Extended Presidents Board Meeting.
Noting that Hizmet-İş faced many difficulties during its 43-year march, Arslan said, "Against all pressures and impositions, Hizmet-İş did not give up on honor, labor and right, and continued on its way with hundreds of thousands of workers and laborers."
Stating that employees had a difficult period due to the pandemic, Arslan said, "Practices such as short work allowance and unpaid leave brought many problems with them. There are laborers who are sentenced to 39 liras per day. Laborers working in the private sector, who do not have the understanding of paying full wages by adding to the short-time work allowance, also experience difficult days. Although it was stated in our meeting with the Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services that "unpaid leave will be applied to workers who cannot get short work allowance", this has not been done in practice."
WE WILL NOT TAKE BACK IN THE 'TİS' PROCESS
Referring to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (TİS) process in which subcontracted workers who are employed in public and municipal companies will also be included for the first time, Arslan said, "We may not get what we want in this process. However, this does not mean that we will give up the struggle. We will work with all our elements in this process. We should be side by side with laborers at the stages of collective bargaining without giving up and taking a step back. We should bring them closer to the union struggle and tell them about the importance of the union".
OUR MORE THAN 100 THOUSAND MEMBERS HAVE BEEN SEPARED FROM US WITH THE LAW
Stating that more than 100 thousand members had to resign from their unions due to the change in business lines with the provisional article added to the Statutory Decree numbered 696, Arslan, “Our efforts in the subcontractor struggle were ignored with this change. A great injustice has been done to us. However, we will not back down against this anti-democratic practice. We will enlarge our struggle even more,” he said.