ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin said on Friday that if there was no agreement after an arbitration council report was released on possible wage increases for public servants, the government would decide between the two alternatives it had presented to the unions.
Speaking at a press conference Şahin said despite the fact that total inflation for the past four years had been 46.2 percent, public servants had received wage increases amounting to 72.2 percent, dismissing claims by unions that the government was ignoring them.
The government offered two alternative proposals to the unions earlier this week. One was 2.5 percent plus 2.5 percent for high earners and 4 percent plus 4 percent for low earners. The other was 2.5 percent plus 2.5 percent for all and a YTL 20 plus YTL 20 adjustment payment. The unions rejected both alternatives.
He cited a study by the Turkish Public Workers' Labor Union (Kamu-Sen) that said almost half of public servants owned houses, noting that there had been a huge increase in the purchasing power of state employees in the past few years.
If the government had agreed to union demands to increase the minimum public servant wage to around YTL 1,000 per month, it would have resulted in an added burden of YTL 15 billion, which would have necessitated serious curtailing of investment and debt payment.
He said the lowest public servant wage after the increase in July 2007 would be YTL 775, noting that this 13.6 percent increase was considerably higher than the projected 2007 inflation rate of 4 percent.
Şahin said the average public servant wage increase would be 10.7 percent. “I wish we had the opportunity to do more, but if we did more, we would have had to take money from Turkey's other needs.” He said the economic stability program the government was implementing had to continue.
When asked about the unions' intention to demonstrate over the failure of the wage negotiations, Şahin said they were free to do whatever they wanted within the boundaries of the law. “Turkey is a democratic and free country.”
He said one confederation had announced its intention to call for a strike, adding, “I find this a very unfortunate statement because according to the Constitution, public servants don't have the right to go on strike.”
He called on public servants and unions to act responsibly. “Don't fall victim to provocations. You have children. We don't want to see legal measures taken against public servants,” he said.
The talks between unions and the government took place between Aug. 15 and 30 and ended in failure, with both sides accusing each other of not having approached the matter with good intentions. Unions said they would be taking to the streets to win support, while Şahin warned the unions and public servants against committing illegal acts.
After a failure to reach a deal, the wage increase will be taken up by the reconciliation board headed by the president of the Supreme Arbitration Board (YHK). Four academics will make up the remainder of the board, which will issue a decision in five days. If both sides agree to the decision, then the result will be presented to the Cabinet as a memorandum of understanding. If the sides don't agree to the board's decision, then all chapters of the negotiation will be presented to the Cabinet, which has the final say.
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