TMMOB Chamber of Civil Engineers held demonstrations all over Turkey yesterday with the agenda of "Our Demand is Our Future". The Ankara leg of the protests took place on Kızılay Selanik Street. While engineers were present with balloons and currencies in their hands, TMMOB Chairman of the Board of Directors Ali Ekber Çakar also participated in the action. Ahmet Onur Özergene, President of TMMOB Chamber of Civil Engineers Ankara Branch, made the press statement on behalf of the engineers.
'OUR PATIENCE HAS RUNNED OUT'
Özergene, in his statement, said, "We have run out of patience! The policies followed for years have reduced engineering services to a mere cost item, moving them away from being a public responsibility. Scientific knowledge, professional experience and merit have been pushed into the background; engineering labor has been devalued, professional competence and independence have been weakened. Engineering services, which are the basic elements of safe building production, have sometimes been seen as just a signature and paperwork procedure. However, engineering is not a formality! Engineering is the assurance of human life. We alone will pay the price for ignoring engineering knowledge and public control." "Not the engineers, but the whole society pays together," he said.
'WE FACE THE MOST SEVERE ECONOMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PROBLEMS OF THE PROFESSION'
Emphasizing that the profession is facing the most severe economic and professional problems in history, Özergene said that engineers working in the public sector are deprived of the wages and personal rights they deserve, and that inadequate employment, subcontracting and unqualified practices weaken the engineering capacity of the public sector. Özergene explained that engineers working in the private sector were 'condemned' to low wages, long working hours and precarious employment. Özergene said, "The future of our young colleagues is dragged into uncertainty and condemned to unemployment by the practices carried out in engineering education without considering the need for qualifications and employment, and our female colleagues face discrimination in employment, wages and professional advancement. Due to the regulations in the legislation, our colleagues are left under responsibilities disproportionate to the powers they have, and uncertainties regarding the scope and duration of their professional responsibilities cause them to face heavy legal sanctions even years after completing their duties."
'THE REAL RESPONSIBILITIES ARE BEING AWAY FROM IDENTIFICATION'
Speaking about the earthquake trials, Özergene said, "By moving away from identifying the real responsible parties, the consequences of zoning amnesties, subsequent interventions in the load-bearing systems of buildings, and practices carried out without the knowledge and control of engineers are being placed heavily and disproportionately on our colleagues, without adequately considering the relationship between fault and causality." Stating that it is possible to reduce the devastating consequences of the earthquake through scientific planning, Özergene said, "However, our country still does not have an up-to-date, comprehensive building stock inventory that is shared with the public. Millions of our citizens continue their lives without knowing whether the building they live in is safe or not. With zoning amnesties, buildings that have not received engineering services or are contrary to their project have been given legal status without technical safety inspection. Buildings are not adequately inspected throughout their lifetime, and interventions on load-bearing systems and damages that occur over time are not systematically monitored. However, living in a safe building It is not a privilege, it is a fundamental human right! It is a citizen's most natural right to know the safety of the building he lives in, buys or rents. How many more earthquakes do we have to experience and how many more lives do we have to lose to find out whether the buildings we live in are safe? he said.
REQUESTS ARE LISTED ONE BY ONE
Listing their wishes as engineers, Özergene said:
"Minimum wages for engineering services should be determined in line with professional knowledge, labor and responsibility; TMMOB's authority to determine and supervise in this field should be legally guaranteed. SSI notifications should be made based on real wages and occupation codes; unregistered work, unpaid overtime and precarious employment should be stopped. Wages and personal rights of public engineers should be improved; additional indicators, compensation and additional payments should be reflected in retirement. Subcontracting and precarious employment in the public sector should be stopped, technical staff should be stopped. employment of engineers should be increased and merit should be taken as a basis in appointments. Planned employment policies should be implemented to reduce unemployment of young engineers; salaries of retired engineers should be increased to a living level worthy of human dignity. In earthquake trials, an expert witness system with guaranteed scientific and technical competence should be established and specialized technical courts should be established. Construction site management should be made a full-time and actual engineering service. "Assigning employees to too many construction sites should be stopped and a supervisor should be appointed for each construction site. Our country's building stock inventory should be prepared immediately; risky buildings should be identified with scientific methods, and reinforcement and urban transformation works should be carried out on the basis of life safety and social justice, not profit."
'THE RIGHTS OF OUR COLLEAGUES ARE A REQUIREMENT FOR THE SECURITY OF OUR PEOPLE'
Speaking later, Ali Ekber Çakar said, "Neoliberal policies implemented in our country for years are making the working and living conditions of our colleagues increasingly difficult. We are faced with increasing cost of living, unemployment and precarious working conditions. Engineering, architecture and urban planning are services that directly affect the life of society. Devaluation of labor is devaluation of the life safety of the people. The February 6 earthquakes have once again painfully shown the consequences of this. Therefore, the demands of our chamber are not limited only to the rights of our colleagues. The security of our people is "It is necessary," he said.
At the end of the statement, the engineers released their balloons into the sky.
