Diyanet employees hold protest over salary promotions: 'We are warning the Presidency'

Diyanet-Sen members have taken to the streets against the salary promotion tender. Diyanet-Sen Chairman Ali Yıldız made a statement on behalf of the union members, saying, "We do not accept any offer that victimizes Diyanet employees." 

Yıldız stated, "We want the rights of our religious officials to be protected and the mistake to be corrected by sending offers to all banks with sufficient infrastructure."

According to the report by ANKA, Diyanet-Sen Chairman Ali Yıldız summarized the following in his statement there:

"As is known, the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has entered into agreements with participation banks for staff salaries through salary agreement tenders covering its central and provincial organizations. Due to the agreements made in this direction to date, the Presidency staff have been experiencing very serious grievances in their salary and banking transactions.

We have gathered here to warn the Presidency so that the same problems are not experienced in the new tender to be held in March 2025 and that there is no insistence on mistakes. If our demands had been taken into account and the mistake had been corrected, we would have gathered here to thank the Presidency. But that did not happen, and we were forced to make this statement.

The Presidency of Religious Affairs has previously signed salary agreements with different participation finance banks; as a result of these agreements, which were not made in accordance with a competitive environment, the Presidency staff have experienced and are still experiencing various difficulties. In tenders that are opened only among a few participation banks and where no competitive environment is created, low-value agreements emerge, and the staff are victimized financially compared to other public personnel.

'WORKPLACE PEACE IS BEING DISRUPTED'

Furthermore, the Presidency of Religious Affairs staff are also victimized due to reasons such as the lack of branches of participation banks in some provinces where they won the tender, the insufficient infrastructure and personnel of these banks, keeping cash withdrawal limits at a minimum level, and incomplete or inadequate ATM services.

For example, we have personnel who have to travel hundreds of kilometers back and forth because there are no branches in many provinces and hundreds of districts. As examples, we can count dozens of provinces such as Şırnak, Hakkâri, Muş, Samsun, and Artvin. Employees in such provinces have to travel hundreds of kilometers to open an account, sometimes cannot return to their workplaces on the same day, and services are disrupted. Religious officials who are victimized on the roads just to open an account can experience tension with the administration, and workplace peace is disrupted.

The tenders have reached such an absurd state that in the last tender, only a single participation finance institution submitted a bid. In such a picture where competitive conditions are not formed, the participation finance institution entering the tender gives the lowest possible offer and wins the tender. Even though this absurd situation that produces grievances is obvious, the Presidency insists on participation finance institutions despite all our objections. An even greater absurdity is that the Presidency of Religious Affairs, which imposes participation finance institutions on its staff, works with private banks other than participation finance institutions itself.

Now we want to ask the officials of the Presidency of Religious Affairs: If you can work with banks other than participation finance institutions, why do you not make this choice that you make for your own institution for your staff as well? Who can explain this contradiction to us? Do you not see the grievances your staff are experiencing? Do you not notice that institutional belonging is weakening among the staff due to this insistence of yours? If you are not going to look after Diyanet personnel, who do you expect to look after them and resolve the grievances? Yes, what more are you waiting for to resolve the grievances?

As the authorized union, we carried the issue to the Institutional Administrative Board in 2023 and 2024 to convey the problems, complaints, and demands coming from the field and to correct this distorted situation. In the Institutional Administrative Board held in April 2024, we took the decision to 'conduct a study on updating the gift given to the personnel within the framework of the salary agreement covering the Presidency's central and provincial organizations.' In addition, upon our application, the Ombudsman Institution also determined in its decision dated May 24, 2024, that the personnel were victimized due to the insufficient and incomplete services of participation banks and issued a recommendation decision to resolve the experienced grievances.

Although it is aware of all the details of the grievances, the Presidency continues to request offers only from participation finance institutions. Although we have conveyed these problems to the Presidency and financial institutions many times, no solution has been produced for years, and there is an insistence on the mistake. For this mistake to be corrected, the Presidency of Religious Affairs must act in accordance with both the April 2024 IAB decision and the decision given by the Chief Ombudsman, and the bank agreement must be made accordingly. The tender specifications must include conditions that the banks to submit offers must have sufficient personnel, number of ATMs, and infrastructure, and a competitive environment must be created in the tender.

'WE ARE SAYING STOP TO THIS IMPOSITION'

We also want the following points to be known specifically: We are absolutely against interest-based banking, which is the source of economic exploitation. For this reason, as Diyanet-Sen, we support every regulation made to develop and expand participation finance institutions by eliminating the deficiencies we mentioned in accessing banking services, which is a human need, so that they can perform all banking services more qualitatively.

For this reason, our union headquarters also works only with participation banks. However, we are also against the exploitation of this sensitivity of our nation, which does not work with interest-based banks due to religious sensitivities. You will both provide incomplete service, not have a bank branch, victimize the staff, and win the tender you want. As religious officials, we are saying stop to this imposition here today.

As Diyanet-Sen, we declare here that we will not accept a salary agreement tender that does not provide the highest benefit in favor of Diyanet employees and competitive conditions, and that does not align with today's economic conditions. We invite our Presidency of Religious Affairs to fulfill the requirements of the law and legislation, the Institutional Administrative Board Decision, and the Ombudsman's recommendation decision. We want the rights of our religious officials to be protected and the mistake to be corrected by sending offers to all banks with sufficient infrastructure, taking all these into account in the new tender to be held in March."

News Source: 12punto