On Tuesday, 18 August, representatives of Turkey's Amnesty International (AI) branch and the Sosyal-İş trade union, which is associated with the Confederation of Trade Unions of Revolutionary Workers (DİSK), met at the AI office for a collective labour agreement to be signed.
Recep Kavuş, vice president of AI's managing board said that trade union rights were part of AI's concern: "We want to emphasise that we support employees and labour."
The signing and press conference were also attended by Ruhat Sena Akşener, AI's workers' representative, Süleyman Çelebi, president of DİSK, and Ali Cancı, president of Sosyal-İş.
Setting an example
Kavuş said that AI aimed at setting an example for other NGOs.
"At a time when the economic crisis has affected human rights negatively, the collective labour agreement is important for us because it posits gender equality and job security."
The agreement will be valid for two years and affects nine employees of Amnesty International, working at their offices in Istanbul and Ankara.
Social rights
Cancı said that this was the first labour agreement that respected gender equality, and he thanked AI for its determination to implement the conditions of the agreement.
The agreement demands that wages be raised not according to the rate of inflation, but the index of living costs published by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and also safeguards a "welfare share" based on length of employment, support for marriage, birth and education, job security, more flexible working conditions, and health insurance.
Çelebi said that the agreement had high symbolic value, pointing out that it was vital for employees to organise in order to defend rights.
He expressed his opposition to a newly passed amendment which allows money from unemployment funds to be transferred to the government's budget, saying that the plans for the use of the money did nothing to improve employment.
After the signature ceremony, Çelebi and Cancı also became members of Turkey's Amnesty International. (DPK/EÜ/AG)
