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The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report and the discussions that took place at the Conference Committee in June 1993, as well as the comments of the Confederation of Turkish Labour Real Trade Union (HAK-IS) and of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TURK-IS).

The Committee recalls that for several years it has been commenting on the fact that trade unions may negotiate collectively only if they represent for at least 10 per cent of the membership of a branch and more than 50 per cent of the employees of an establishment, that arbitration is compulsory in collective disputes which are not a threat to essential services and that public servants are denied the right to bargain collectively.

1. The Committee notes the information provided by a Government representative to the Conference Committee and by the Government in its report, to the effect that the numerical requirements laid down in section 12 of Act No. 2822 have been maintained because of a consensus between the main social partners, but that the Government will endeavour to amend them in accordance with the Committee's wishes.

The Committee expresses the hope that the Government will indeed take the necessary measures to remove the two numerical requirements from the national legislation in order to encourage and promote the full development and utilization of machinery for voluntary collective bargaining, in accordance with Article 4 of the Convention.

2. With regard to the collective bargaining rights of public servants, the Government indicates that in order to ensure the conformity of the legislation with Convention No. 87 which Turkey has recently ratified, a Bill on the trade union rights of public servants has been submitted to the social partners for discussion. It adds that, in practice, public servants have already formed organizations and that the Prime Minister's circular, No. 1993/15 of 15 June 1993, has eliminated the practical obstacles to the exercise of their trade union rights.

TURK-IS, for its part, regrets that the union activities of the public servants' organizations have been impaired by administrative decisions, that public servants have been subjected to anti-union discrimination and that their collective bargaining rights have still not been guaranteed.

The Committee notes this information and these comments. It expresses the firm hope that the Bill will guarantee that public servants have the right to negotiate the conditions of their employment collectively. It asks the Government in its next report to indicate any progress made in this respect and to provide a copy of the Bill as soon as it has been adopted.

3. The Committee regrets to note that the Government repeats that compulsory arbitration is resorted to only in strictly defined conditions, in the context of procedures bringing together the two social partners and only in exceptional circumstances in order to protect workers who would otherwise be deprived of an essential means of protecting their occupational interests. The Committee recalls that the imposition of compulsory arbitration is contrary to the promotion of voluntary collective bargaining and should be limited to essential services in the strict sense of the term, that is services the interruption of which would endanger the life, safety or health of the whole or part of the population, and again asks the Government to take the necessary measures at the earliest possible date to amend section 33 of Act No. 2822 to bring it into conformity with the principle referred to above, and to indicate in its next report any progress made in this respect.

[The Government is asked to report in detail for the period ending 30 June 1994.]