ISTANBUL - Labour and Social Security Minister Murat Basesgioglu said on Monday that ''all EU countries decided to act in common to prevent unregistered employment.''
Basesgioglu wrapped up his contacts in Italy and returned to Turkey.
Speaking in a news conference at Ataturk Airport, Basesgioglu said that the EU Employment and Social Affairs Council meeting was held in Italy and Turkey attended this meeting for the first time.
Basesgioglu said that the issue of coordination between employment and social policies was taken up in the meeting and that they particularly focused on unregistered employment. Basesgioglu stressed that two important basis of fight with unregistered employment were explained during the meeting.
''One of them is measures of incentives and the other one are the other measures that need to be taken. Regarding incentives, it was stressed that active labour force markets and policies had to be given importance. It was mentioned that tax and Social Security Agency (SSK) premiums had to be regulated in a way to prevent unregistered employment. Regarding measures, ministers pointed out that a very strict mechanism had to be set up and sanctions had to be brought forward,'' he said. Basesgioglu stressed that he had the opportunity to meet with labour ministers of 31 countries on the sidelines of the meeting.
When asked if the tax and SSK premium rate was fixed during the meeting, Basesgioglu said that ''in such kind of meetings, EU draws the general framework, and leaves the details to the countries. We will decide that. There is no standard reduction.''
Upon a question about the laws adopted concerning labour field, Basesgioglu said that ''there are three important laws which we adopted. The first one is the law regarding the work permission given to foreigners. From now on, we will give the work permits to foreigners. It was a very complicated proceeding before; now, we made it simple. The second one is Labour Law. The third law is the law on Employment Agency, which will deal with the problem of employment in Turkey. In addition, there are two other laws which complement the three laws. One of them is the Trade Unions law, the other one is the collective bargaining law, and the third is the strike and lockout law. Our ministry has completed the preparations about this issue. After reaching a compromise, we will send it to the parliament.''
When asked about the Seniority Payment Fund, Basesgioglu said that ''we put an article to the new Labour Law foreseeing the formation of Seniority Payment Fund. There will not be a regression about acquired rights.''
(Öª-AÖ) 14.07.2003