Cemil Tugay reacts to the union: We will lay off 1,030 people

İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay made significant statements during a press conference he held. Speaking at the meeting held at the Egemenlik Evi Çetin Emeç Press Hall, Tugay shared detailed information regarding the employment and budget situation in the municipality. Tugay stated, "Today, we are beginning to implement the official procedure to part ways with approximately 1,030 employees."

Drawing attention to the number of personnel in the municipality when he took office, Tugay noted that there were approximately 26,500 employees when former Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu left office, and that he took over with a staff of 37,700. According to current figures, the number of employees in the municipality has dropped to approximately 34,218.

Explaining that the municipality's monthly income is 3 billion 800 million liras, Tugay said that a large portion of this amount is allocated to personnel expenses. Tugay stated that 3.5 billion liras are used for salaries, social security (SGK), and tax payments for workers and affiliated company employees, and that the remaining portion is transferred to contract civil servants and permanent workers.

Touching upon the collective bargaining agreement made with the Belediye-İş Union just before he took office, Tugay expressed that the process negatively affected the municipal budget and spoke as follows:

"We conveyed to both the branch presidents in İzmir and the general president that the mentioned increases were putting excessive strain on the municipal budget. However, we did not receive a positive response. We filed a lawsuit, stating that the increase signed before us was not suitable for the conditions of the day and needed to be updated. The lowest salary for members of the Belediye-İş Union working in municipalities is around 80,000 liras. This figure will reach 130,000 liras as of September. We told the union representatives that if they did not fix this situation, 'we would have to part ways with some employees who are your members.' No one gave a positive response. We used our legal right with the legislative authority we received from the relevant labor law. We gave notice 1 month in advance. Today, we are beginning to implement the official procedure to part ways with approximately 1,030 employees."

Tugay also emphasized that the relatives of some union officials hired in the last five-year period would also be among those to be laid off.

Upon a journalist's question at the meeting regarding whether the layoffs would be stopped if an agreement is reached with the union, Tugay used the following expression:

"We proposed the cancellation of the increase in March, but that was not done. There is another increase in September. We are requesting that at least this be stopped. If the union stops the increase, that is, if they say 'we find the figures that will go up to a minimum of 130,000 liras excessive,' we will not consider mass layoffs."

Responding to a question about how many people were hired by the municipality during his term, Tugay explained, "We had an employment of under 1,900. We hired them due to mandatory needs. There were many office staff, but few field staff. There were also position changes."

News Source: AA