KAYSERI - State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said on Sunday that collective bargain talks between the government and labor unions failed, stating that, ''competition between confederations of civil servants prevented us from signing memorandum of understanding.''
Sahin said although the talks failed, they were productive, stating that the process has not been completed yet.
Stating that they wanted civil servants to have good financial and social rights, Sahin said, ''as we can not make collective bargaining in constitutional means with civil servants, we can only carry out collective bargaining talks. That could take place only for 15 days. An agreement could not be reached, but it was beneficial for us, for labor unions and for confederations. We had the facility to understand each other. We don't want them to have economic problems. However, we should take into consideration the conditions of our country. We have not said that salaries of civil servants are satisfactory. Budget of 2004 has not been prepared yet.''
Sahin said they tried to establish stability and settle balances in economy by implementing economic program, and stated that, ''Turkey has debts. We are obliged to pay nearly half of our annual budget as interests. The only way of reducing this is to act in line with financial discipline. We have offered them 160 million Turkish lira. I think this was not a figure that would be refused.''
Sahin said process of collective bargaining talks have not ended yet, stressing that it was possible for the sides to convene again after evaluation of Conciliatory Board.
Sahin said it was the target of the government to upgrade the living standards of its people, stating that the talks failed because of the competition between the confederations.
(AY) 31.08.2003