January 16, 2006-

Member of the Parliament of the Republic Party from Istanbul, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has been claiming for years that Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) was employing workers “fraudulently and illegally”. Now he has brought the issue to the consideration of the Parliament and asked the Prime-minister to formally answer questions.

Kılıçdaroğlu, in a questionaire he handed in to President of the Parliament refered to TRT’s “exceptional” contract which employed staff without any kind social security coverage and asked the Prime-minister to respond to:
-“Is it true that a new status (where the temporary workers not considered staff) was created for the afore mentioned staff, the staff having this status was considered neither worker nor public employee, in the last 4 years a new contrct was signed for 11 months for each year and they were regarded as temporary?
– How many people are employed in TRT and its regional branches under the status of temporary staff not considered workers; and what salaries do they receive?
– To what positions are these people assigned?
– Are these temporary staff members assigned to perform any of the duties of the regular and permament staff?
– Is there any truth in the accusations that: these people are contracted for only eleven months, their contract is terminated and renewed a month later and they are made to continue to work between contracts without pay; their social security fees are not paid; if they refuse to accept these conditions, their contracts are not renewed; to avoid the legal liabilities, their names are not listed in the duty charts even when they actually work?
– Has your administration conducted any inspection concerning this issue so far?
– As the Prime-minister, are you considering starting legal and administrative action against the people responsible for illegal acts in a public institution such as the TRT?

EK.