New social security law leaves students stranded

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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The new social security law that came into force in October caused unexpected changes in university life, as it affected the position of part-time working students and full time employers in terms of their social insurance premiums.

The new law caused reactions from both university administrations and students to such a degree that a group of university students, working part time as "student-assistants" at Istanbul University, went on a hunger strike last Monday, because they lost their jobs and cannot claim their wages because of the new law.

"I could not buy some of my textbooks and I started to have difficulty in covering some of my expenses like transport," said third grade medical school student Ceylan, talking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. Ceylan, who declined to give her surname, is one of the striking students and she used to work in one of the clinics of the Istanbul Medical School Hospital. Students in Istanbul University have not been working since November.

Part time work, full time insurance
The new law requires university administrations to pay full social insurance premiums for part-time working students, causing many problems both for universities and students. It has led to university administrations refraining from employing students, causing many students to lose a valuable source of income. There are almost 20,000 students in Turkey working part-time within universities.

Education in Turkey is not free and students have to work as scholarships are not available for all students, said Burak Çelik, another protesting student at Istanbul University, speaking on behalf of the group Monday, the Anatolia news agency reported. Students are determined to go on with their strike until they find the person responsible for their plight, Ceylan said.

With the new law, university administrations that employ students part time in various areas of the university, such as libraries and data processing departments, have to pay complete premiums for students as they would an ordinary worker, which is around 33 percent. Formerly, students were only insured for work related accidents and diseases. Universities, which greatly benefit from student labor, are against the new practice and have demanded an urgent amendment for universities. Several universities applied to the Higher Education Board, or YÖK, which is still working on an offer to the government for an amendment to the law. However, officials from YÖK cannot give a date for completing their offer.

Meanwhile, the situation for students has become much more difficult, as they have not been able to collect their wages for more than a month. They also face the threat of losing their scholarships and the health insurances of their families, as under the new law they are to be considered salary earners, although their monthly wages are only around YTL 200.

"Many students all around the country are dismissed from work," Çelik said, adding that they would continue with their strike until they received their outstanding wages and were reinstated. Sabahat Tuncel, a Democratic Society Party deputy, has supported the cause of the students.

"This will lead to problems for students that cannot be amended," Ali Tezel, the head of the Social Security Consultants Association told the Daily News.

Legally, a person who has his or her own income cannot benefit from the family’s health insurance. If the complete social insurance premiums of part time working students are paid, they will be considered as income earning individuals and therefore unable to benefit from their parents’ health insurance. However, according to the new social security law, a part-time worker must use his or her own money to cover the premiums for the days of the month not worked in order to benefit from health insurance.

"For instance, a student who works five days a month should pay premiums for the remaining 22 days. [Students] have to pay general health insurance premiums from their own pocket to get health service," Tezel said.

It is not only issues about health insurance that university students will have to handle; the scholarships of students will be cut as well, as scholarships are for students with no income. "The credits that students receive from the state for their tuition will not be given either," Tezel said. "This will lead to problems that cannot be amended," he said.

Genç-Sen on the other hand, the youth trade union founded by the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions, or DİSK, called on university administrations to pay the wages of students immediately and also pay the full social insurance premiums. Responding to a question by the Daily News about the risk to students of losing scholarships, Kıvanç Eliaçık from Genç-Sen said they already defended free education. "Education should be free and if you employ students you should pay their premiums," he said.

’Impossible to run universities in this manner’
"The government should accelerate the process to find a solution," said Professor Muhammed Şahin, the private news site NTVMSNBC reported the rector of Istanbul University as saying. "Otherwise it would be impossible to run the university. Students run our data processing unit. This unit is the heart of the university," he said. As the new law is retroactive for a certain period, the university cannot pay the wages of students, Şahin also said.

YÖK stated that they were in contact with the Social Security Institution and were urgently moving for a solution, according to Figen İnan, the head of Ege University’s Health, Culture, and Sports Directorate.