State Council halts the ‘1 percent’ requirement for civil servants’ bonuses

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The Council of State has halted the execution of an article of the collective labor agreement between the government and unions stipulating that unions have at least 1 percent membership in order for the civil servants who are members of the related unions to be able to get a bonus.

The collective agreement signed between the government and the unions of civil servants entered into force after it was published in the Official Gazette on August 25. It foresaw the payment of 400 lira as a bonus. But there was a condition for a civil servant to get this bonus: The union that she or he was a member of should not have less than 1 percent membership.

In a recent ruling, the 12th Civil Chamber of the Council of State has halted the execution of this article.

The article was taken to court by Necip Taşkın, the Chair of Anatolian Health and Social Service Employees Union (Anadolu Sağlık-Sen).

Following the ruling of the Council of State, he has announced that regardless of the union a civil servant is a member of, she or he can now get the bonus indicated in the collective labor agreement.

Commenting further on the ruling, Taşkın has underlined that the law has stood fast in the face of injustice.

Referring to the 6th Term Collective Bargaining, Taşkın has addressed the authorized unions that participated in the collective bargaining and accused them of "attempting to restrict civil servants' right to choose their unions with their free will and imposing the 1-percent threshold for their own interests instead of addressing the professional, social and economic problems faced by civil servants or offering improvements in this context."

Taşkın has stressed that the Council of State, with this ruling, has said "Stop" to these "unions' and their partners' moves for their own future." (HA/SD)