Turkish Labor Law
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This year’s collective bargaining talks, annually slated for August, will be replaced with the collective agreement talks to be held after Parliament opens in October in line with the approved constitutional amendments granting public servants the right to a collective agreement.
Labor Minister Faruk Çelik, who came together with public servant unions Thursday, said this year collective bargaining talks would not be held on Aug. 15 but that collective agreement talks would take place after the respective law was passed in Parliament when it opens in October.
The collective bargaining negotiations between the government and public servant unions are held every year from Aug. 15 to 30, in line with the Public Servants’ Unions Law. According to the law, the negotiations must be finalized in 15 days.
The government-led constitutional amendments approved in a referendum last year, however, accorded public servants the right to collective agreement, thus abolishing the collective bargaining negotiations. Public employees earlier had the right to collective bargaining with the government only.
Çelik and the unions thus decided to wait October to discuss the price increase in salaries of the public employees during the collective agreement talks.
Legal arrangements are expected to be submitted to Cabinet in the second half of September for discussion and to be legalized in Parliament in October, Çelik said. Collective agreement talks will take place after the law is passed, he said.
One of the most crucial points in the law will be the structure of the arbitration committee that would intervene and have the final say in the case of a possible disagreement between the unions and the government.
Hürriyet Daily News
