Public employees flout dress code

ELAZIĞ / BURSA

A female member fo Memur-Sen trade union lectures kids with her headscarf on at a public school ih the Aegean province of Manisa. DHA photo

The Confederation of Public Servants’ Trade Unions (Memur-Sen), which had collected more than 12 million signatures against a ban on wearing headscarves in public offices, has launched a civil disobedience campaign, with some teachers entering classes with hijabs and some male employees cutting their ties yesterday.

Memur-Sen Chairman Ahmet Gündoğdu said in an İzmir meeting on March 17 that women are not allowed to pick their style of dress. “Someone covering her head can be the president’s, the prime minister’s or a a public servant’s spouse, but cannot undertake one of these posts hersel,” while announcing the start of the disobedience campaign.

In accordance, civil servants in the eastern province of Elazığ cut their ties at a public meeting joined by thousands, Anatolia news agency reported. Local trade unionist Murat Ergen said 11 member unions would not obey the code starting from yesterday. Memur-Sen members in the northwestern province of Bursa also protested the code.

“I am convinced that this process will lead to enhanced social peace and harmony and will be a key ingredient for the normalization process,” Labor Minister Faruk Çelik said earlier this month as he received the petition from unionists.

In late February Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said there was no clause in the Constitution banning the headscarf.