Monday, 21 March, 2022.
Leaders of three unions say that the (Special) Bill on the Unification of Municipalities had not all been approved by the Council of Ministers, is ill-considered and had not been drawn up in consultation with the unions. The new pared-down number of municipalities would lead to exploitation, the union representatives said.
Secretary General of the CTP Erdoğan Sorakın said, “We agree that reform is important, but this is not limited to the number of municipalities“. Sorakin listed the necessary steps as follows: “First of all, the rights of people working with collective bargaining agreements should be protected, the regulations should be in accordance with social justice and equality, the state contribution to municipalities should never be disrupted, and the autonomy of local administrations should be improved… We have constantly emphasises these, but we cannot see any such understanding from the other side“.
EMU Law Faculty Administrative Law Lecturer Assist. Assoc. Can Azer said that existing problems would not be solved by merely cutting down the number of municipalities but rather how each municipality was organised. He said that hasty mergers of municipalities would only produce unwieldy and inefficient organisations. Although it is not a legal obligation, the public who use these services should be consulted first, he said.