Turkish PM defends social security reform despite labor unions threats
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan defended the social security reform on Tuesday, saying Turkey cannot afford delaying the reform any further as the unions threatened to hold a general strike against the bill. The long-delayed social security reform aims to cut Turkey's huge deficit and one of the conditions for the release of a 1.3 billion dollars IMF loan tranche. Turkish parliament is expected to approve the bill later this month.(UPDATED)
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He identified criticisms directed at the draft law as "speculations," accusing the critics "acting insincerely and lying”. “
The bill creates a new fund where future severance payments will be transferred and the money accumulating here will be used in private pension funds. Workers will be paid severance payments only in the case of death or retirement but not lay-offs. The reform says workers will be paid severance payments only in the case of death or retirement but not lay-offs, creating potential conflict with the labour groups.
UNIONS CALL WARNING STRIKE
In a bid to please trade unions, the reform bill raises unemployment payments by taking gross salary as the basis for the payments rather take-home salaries. It also reduces the number of working days registered for workers to be entitled to benefit from unemployment payments. But labor unions on Friday called on workers across the country to go on a two-hour warning strike on March 14 to protest against the bill that will rise the retirement age.
"The right not to work will be exercised at workplaces on Friday, March 14 between 1000 and 1200 am (GMT 0800-1000) to warn (the government)", the head of Turkey's biggest labor group Turk-Is Chairman Mustafa Kumlu told reporters after a meeting with other union leaders. The unions might opt for other action if the parliament general assembly starts discussions on the bill with no changes in contents, he said.
The labor unions and the opposition parties criticize the reform saying that it raises the threshold for workers to reach retirement to a very high level of 9,000 days. The government says the current retirement ages of 44 for women and 48 for men are not sustainable and the existing system encourages early retirement.