The face to face group of Amnesty International in Turkey, mostly composed of students started work stoppage on June 2. The employers in the face to face groups are responsible for introducing the people on the streets with the projects of Amnesty International and trying to gain support for the ongoing campaigns of the organisation.
Reported by Tansu Pişkin from bianet.org, there are now 15 employees in the group working on reaching the public for violation of human rights cases. 13 among them stated that they work as subcontracted workers.
According to one of the employees on strike, the International Amnesty started a new project in February 2017. Within this project, the hourly rate of the workers decreased to 7 liras from 8 liras (aproximately 2 US dollars). The employee also reported that they earn less than the minimum wage even if they work 6 days 7 hours in a week.
These employees, according to the sources, are legally registered as interviewers in a human resources company called Zeta, although they work for Amnesty International.
THEY LEARNED THEY WERE SUBCONTRACTED LATER
After the failed coup on July 15, Amnesty International stopped its street interviewing and the face to face group started to work in offices to do telemarketing. According to one of the workers, they all learned that they were subcontracted workers when a unionised co-worker told them.
When Amnesty International restarted the street campaigning practices, it also initiated a new project. However, with this new project, the employees started to get paid less and to work on a premium based system. According to the worker, when they reacted to this new system, they were politely told that they would not be able to work there anymore.
NO SIGNS OF ENDING SUBCONTRACTING
It is also reported by the same worker that they requested a meeting from the management with the demand that “Amnesty International should not employ subcontracted workers”. However, the management said they were not considering ending the subcontracting system. This was when 13 employees decided to go on strike.
