Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Labour Relations (Public Service) Convention, 1978 (No. 151) - Türkiye (Ratification: 1993)

The Committee notes the comments submitted by the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK) in communications dated 31 August 2007, 1 September 2008, 20 August 2009 and 28 August 2010; the Turkish Public Employers’ Union Confederation (TÜRKIYE KAMU-SEN) in a communication dated 15 September 2009; and the Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TİSK) in a communication dated 28 August 2010 and the Independent Confederation of Civil Servants Union (BASK) dated 11 October 2010. The Committee notes the Government’s reply to the comments submitted by KESK in communications dated 2 September 2006 and 31 August 2007. It requests the Government to submit its observations on the remaining above-noted comments.

Article 1 of the Convention. Acts of anti-union discrimination. In its previous comments, the Committee had pointed out that section 18 of Act No. 4688 (Public Servants Trade Unions Act), while generally prohibiting acts of anti-union discrimination, did not impose sufficiently dissuasive sanctions and requested the Government to transmit any provisions containing sufficiently dissuasive sanctions to enforce section 18 of the Act and to provide information on any cases in which such sanctions have been applied. The Committee observes that the Government had submitted information on the relevant legislative provisions sanctioning acts of anti-union discrimination and that this information had been duly noted by the Committee in its comments on application of Convention No. 98 in 2008. The Committee regrets, however, that no information has been provided by the Government on cases in which sanctions to enforce provisions prohibiting anti-union discrimination have been imposed and therefore reiterates its request.

Article 4. Collective bargaining. The Committee recalls that it in previous comments, it noted that sections 3(a) and 15 of Act No. 4688 denied several categories of public servants the right to organize and consequently the right to collective bargaining, as the definition of a public employee in section 3(a) refers only to those who are permanently employed and have finished their trial periods and section 15 lists a number of public employees (such as lawyers, civilian civil servants at the Ministry of National Defence and the Turkish armed forces, etc.) who are prohibited from joining trade unions. The Committee notes the Government’s intention to amend Act No. 4688 following the entry into force, on 12 September 2010, of the Law amending the Constitution. The Committee once again recalls that a distinction must be drawn between, on the one hand, public servants who by their functions are directly employed in the administration of the State (for example, in some countries, civil servants employed in government ministries and other comparable bodies, as well as ancillary staff) who may be excluded from the scope of the Convention and, on the other hand, all other persons employed by the Government, by public enterprises or by autonomous public institutions, who should benefit from the guarantees provided for in the Convention (see General Survey on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining, 1994, paragraph 200). The Committee trusts that Act No. 4688 will be soon amended and that the final text will take fully into account its comments above.

Finally, with regard to the procedure of collective bargaining in the public service, the Committee refers to its observation on the application of Convention No. 98.