Dismissed due to union activities, Hürriyet journalists win lawsuit for reinstatement

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An İstanbul court has ruled for the reinstatement of 22 journalists fired from daily Hürriyet, one of the largest newspapers in Turkey.

The journalists, all of whom are members of the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS), were fired because of their union activities, the Bakırköy 6th Labor Court concluded in yesterday's (December 23) ruling.

The court ordered the newspaper to pay the journalists a union compensation equal to their one year gross salary and a compensation equal to their four salaries for "idle time."

As per the Labor Law, the journalists should now apply to Demirören Media, the parent company of Hürriyet that has close ties to the government, within 10 working days and the newspaper should recruit them within a month.

The case filed by 23 other journalists whom Hürriyet fired continues. Yesterday's ruling may set a precedent for that case.

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What happened?

Having reached the sufficient number of members, the TGS made an application for authorization at Hürriyet starting from November 2019. However, Hürriyet fired 45 journalists on October 30, 2019.

Notifications about the dismissals were sent to journalists' homes while they were at work. The newspaper also didn't pay compensation to the journalists.

Hürriyet hired new staff to replace the dismissed journalists. Yet the Ministry of Labor ignored the fraudulent recruitment to prevent union authorization.

The 45 journalists had filed two separate cases against the newspaper. (HA/VK)