The details of the "threshold" demand brought to the agenda by Memur-Sen and Türkiye Kamu-Sen at the Public Personnel Advisory Board (KPDK) meeting are becoming clear. There is an expectation behind the scenes that the threshold will be 5 percent. It is stated that the regulation will be among the amendments to be made in the Public Servants' Unions and Collective Agreement Law, which will be on the agenda in the coming period.
If the regulation is implemented, civil servant unions will be required to recruit at least 5 percent of the civil servants in that service branch. Only on this condition will they be able to receive their membership fees. This practice was previously included in the law. However, it was removed from the law with the amendment made in 2004. The regulation stipulated that the membership fees of unions that registered more than 5 percent of public servants working in the same branch of service as members would be deducted from their monthly salaries by the public employer and deposited into the bank accounts of the unions within 5 days.
Unions with a membership below 5 percent could not benefit from this right. In this way, although unions below 5 percent were not closed down, they were significantly financially restricted. Unions whose income would be cut had no chance of continuing. The 5 percent rate was abolished in 2004 because it prevented the right to organize and restricted union freedoms. Now it is planned to reintroduce the same regulation.
HE RETURNED FROM THE JUDICIAL
Meanwhile, the government had brought up the "dam" practice in different ways before. In order to benefit from the collective bargaining bonus, 1 percent and 2 percent threshold conditions were stipulated. In order for civil servants to receive the full collective bargaining bonus, they had to be members of unions that could exceed the 1 percent and 2 percent threshold in that service branch. However, these regulations were also rejected by the judiciary.
REACTIONS CONTINUE
Reactions to the planned dam implementation continue. Büro-İş Union emphasized that constitutional rights "cannot be usurped" by dams. Büro-İş expressed the view that "Those who condemned public employees to poverty are now trying to put a barrier in front of union organization" and continued as follows:
"While public workers are struggling to survive under the ever-increasing cost of living, diminishing wages, aggravating tax burden, rent and bill traps, the priority of the unions that should defend the rights of public employees has unfortunately not been the laborers' table, but the dam debates that limit union competition. Efforts to reintroduce the union threshold regulation, which was annulled by the Constitutional Court within the framework of the principle of equality, is an unacceptable approach towards the will of public workers and union pluralism."
Büro-İş asked Memur-Sen and Türkiye Kamu-Sen, "While public employees are forced to live below the poverty line, salaries are melting against inflation, rents and basic consumption expenses are eroding wages, why is your priority the union threshold, not the purchasing power of the worker?" He reacted with his expressions. Büro-İş emphasized that they are against any initiative that limits the will of public employees, weakens union pluralism and narrows the freedom of association. "No union can impose itself as the sole representative of public workers," said Büro-İş and continued as follows:
“Our call to Memur-Sen and Türkiye Kamu-Sen is clear: Leave the dam account, hold public workers who are struggling to make ends meet.
Discuss why salaries are eroding due to poverty, why collective agreements cannot provide humane living conditions for public employees, and why public workers try to make ends meet by going into debt. Struggle to raise the bread on the worker's table.
