Brussels, 4 October 2007: In a matter which brings back grim memories of the case of teachers’ union Egitim Sen, in which the authorities repeatedly tried to close down the union on the basis of an irrelevant legal argument, the Turkish Trade Union of Retirees, Emekli-Sen, had to appear in court on Thursday 20 September.
The ITUC had been informed by one of its Turkish affiliates, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK), that Ankara’s 17th Central Judicial Court had already rejected the case brought by the Turkish Interior Ministry. This had also been the case with all previous court cases which had been brought against Emekli-Sen argumenting that retirees don’t have the right to establish a union.
However, after the Turkish Interior Ministry had decided to appeal against that decision, the Turkish Supreme Court ordered the closure of Emekli-Sen on the grounds that Article 51 of the Turkish Constitution does not allow for retirees to establish a union.
The ITUC immediately wrote a protest letter to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, pointing out that Article 90 of the Turkish Constitution establishes the prevalence of international legislation over Turkey’s own national legislation, and that both the UN’s as well as the European Declaration on Human Rights state that everybody has the right to form a trade union to protect his or her personal interests. Furthermore, there is of course no reason why a retired worker should be excluded from establishing or joining a trade union.
Finally, on 20 September, the authorites’ lawyers did not even bother to show up in court, which therefore adjourned the case. While Emekli-Sen can still not be sure whether the authorities will carry on with their case against them or not, they will have to wait for another three months to see if the court changes its mind. In that event, it could still face closure.
In the course of 2005 and 2006, no less than seven trade unions suffered interference in their constitutions by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, or by the Ankara local government. It seems that a pattern of abuse of Turkey’s legal system to harass or even close down trade unions, against which the ITUC and the former ICFTU have repeatedly protested, is still in place.
Founded on 1 November 2006, the ITUC represents 168 million workers in 153 countries and territories and has 305 national affiliates.
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