“Turkey Evades Responsibility By Not Signing Mining Convention”

Tayfun Görgün, the chairman of mining union Dev Maden-Sen, commented for bianet the statement of Faruk Çelik, Minister of Labor and Social Security, “The enacted law related with the mining occupational security fully complies with European Union”.

While Görgün claimed that the declaration of the Minister didn’t reflect the truth, “Besides the minimum standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) are more advanced than those in Turkey,” he added.  

“ILO has defined minimum standards for the precautions in mining operation. These standards are more advanced than those in Turkey.

"If the government wants to work the problem by saying ‘I will solve this and I will take precautions’, they should be decisive and sign the agreement.  Because, upon the sign of ILO agreement, its articles will be regarded as a legal standard with regards to Constitution of Turkey Article 90, even though the local legislation would not be regulated accordingly.

"Therefore the claims of the Minister are not true. The laws in Turkey include several articles of ILO Convention No. 176. But some of them are applied deficiently and some are not applied. Upon the sign of ILO agreement, non execution of these rules and the lack of the audit for non execution will be an offense.

"But Turkey doesn’t intend to sign the agreement in order to evade its responsibility. The policy of the government is ‘high production with lower costs'. But this means the break of standards, and damage to the environment and humans as well,” Görgün said. (EA/CB/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.