Constitutional Court Decision on Bonus for Public Officials: The '2 Percent Threshold' Annulled

The Constitutional Court (Anayasa Mahkemesi — AYM) annulled the "2 percent union membership threshold" condition that had been stipulated as a requirement for the payment of a collective bargaining bonus to public officials.

The regulation in question required that, in order to benefit from the collective bargaining bonus, the union to which the employee was affiliated must have reached a membership rate of at least 2 percent. Anayasa Mahkemesi ruled that this regulation was unconstitutional.

The decision eliminates the problem whereby members of small unions who, despite being union members, could not benefit from the bonus because their union had failed to surpass this threshold. As Kültür Emekçileri Sendikası, we welcome this decision and emphasise that all public officials must be able to benefit equally from the right to union membership.