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With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the detailed information provided by the Government in its report of 2001, as well as in the 20th and 21st annual reports on the application of the European Code of Social Security (ECSS), and in particular that concerning the revision of the rates of current periodical payments for long-term benefits (Article 65(10) or 66(8) of the Convention) and the statistics on the number of employees covered by social security in relation to the total number of employees in the country (Article 76). The Committee also notes the observations made by the Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations, the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions and the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey supplied by the Government together with its report.

Part XI (Standards to be complied with by periodical payments), Article 65 or 66 of the Convention. In its 20th annual report on the ECSS, which contains more up-to-date statistics than the report on the Convention, the Government provides detailed calculations of long-term benefits (old-age, invalidity and survivors’ benefits) according to the previous legislation for periods of insurance prior to 1 January 2000 and according to the new rules for periods of insurance after 1 January 2000. These calculations are made "for a manual worker such as a turner" in the private sector of the economy, whose average monthly earnings would correspond to the reference wage of a skilled manual male employee selected in accordance with Article 65, paragraph 6(a), of the Convention. The Committee notes in that respect that the Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations also considers it more appropriate for the Government to provide statistics on the rates of the benefits paid to a typical beneficiary whose earnings are equivalent to a skilled blue-collar male worker, as was previously requested by the Committee. On the basis of these statistics, given on page 85 of the 20th report on the ECSS, the Committee observes however that, in comparison with the reference wage of a turner calculated for the first half of 2001, the amounts of long-term benefits calculated in the report as of 1 July 2001 for the model beneficiaries having accomplished different contributory periods (21 years in the case of old-age and invalidity pension and 7.5 years in the case of invalidity and survivors’ benefits) would not in any of these cases attain the replacement levels prescribed by the Convention for the benefits in question. It further notes that the maximum amount of the old-age pension for private sector employees, together with the social support increment (as indicated in the table on page 35 of the 20th annual report), in June 2001, attained only 36 per cent of the reference wage of a turner, instead of 40 per cent prescribed by the Convention. In view of this situation and the fact that Turkish legislation also guarantees minimum amounts of benefits, the Government may wish in future to consider basing its calculations of the level of long-term benefits on the provisions of Article 66 of the Convention taking as a reference the wage of an ordinary adult male labourer, who may then be represented not by a turner, but by a person deemed typical of unskilled labour in the manufacture of machinery other than electrical machinery, as suggested in paragraph 4(a) of this Article.

To ascertain whether the level of the benefits in Turkey meets the replacement levels established by this Article, the Committee would ask the Government to include in its next report detailed information on the wage of an ordinary adult male labourer selected under paragraph 4 or 5 of Article 66, as it chooses, as well as on the amount of the benefit due to a standard beneficiary for each contingency in the manner required in the report form under Article 66 (Titles II to IV). Moreover, in view of the monthly adjustment of benefits to the inflation rate in Turkey, both sets of figures - for the reference wage and for the level of benefits, including minimum and maximum benefits - should be given on a monthly basis for the whole reporting period, accompanied by the corresponding data on the changes made by the Council of Ministers to the minimum and maximum limits of the daily earnings taken into account for the calculation of benefits. The Government should also continue to supply the data necessary for the calculation of benefits under the old rules, indicating in particular the wage taken into account for the calculation of pensions and corresponding to the highest index in the table of indices, as well as the changes in the applied coefficient. The task of the Committee would be greatly facilitated if, in the Government’s next report, the above statistical information for the calculation of the benefits under the joint (old and new) system were presented in a consistent form for the whole period since the introduction of the new rules, that is since 1 January 2000. The Committee considers the production of these statistics particularly important in view of the allegations made by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey that it has not been possible to protect persons receiving periodical payments from the negative effects of the economic crisis and the high rate of inflation in the period from 1997 to 2001.

Finally, as regards the examples of the calculation of the amount of long-term benefits given in the 20th report on the ECSS, as well as in the report on the Convention, the Committee notes that these calculations have been established for an insured person without dependants who has completed different contributory periods (7.5 and 21 years). The Committee wishes to point out that, to comply with the methodology set out in the Convention, such calculations should: (1) refer not to a single beneficiary, but to the standard beneficiary, namely, a man with a wife of pensionable age for old-age benefit, a man with a wife and two children for invalidity benefits and a widow with two children for survivors’ benefit; (2) include the corresponding allowances for a dependent wife and children payable during employment, as well as during the contingency; and (3) be established for a beneficiary who has completed the qualifying period of contribution or employment authorized by the relevant provisions of the Convention (30 years for old-age benefit and 15 years for invalidity and survivors’ benefits).

Part XII (Equality of treatment of non-national residents), Article 68. In reply to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government refers to the information provided in the report submitted under Convention No. 118. The Committee would therefore also like the Government to refer to its observation concerning Convention No. 118.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2004.]