El-Sen, the trade union of employees of the north’s electricity authority (Kib-Tek), has announced that it has sued the authority over the hiring of workers who had not sat the mandatory recruitment examinations.

The union’s general secretary Ahmet Tugcu said on Friday “as the public knows, in recent days, Kib-Tek has been offering employees without any vacancies advertised or examinations sat. El-Sen is against this.”

“Our union is a union which defends merit and is against nepotism … because, as a rule, in all collective bargaining agreements in force since 2019, employment to Kib-Tek must be made through a publicly advertised vacancy and a written examination,” he said.

He added that El-Sen’s lawyers had “completed the necessary work” on the issue and that the matter was now in the hands of the courts.

The controversy came to light earlier this month after it was discovered that El-Sen’s leader Caglayan Cesurer personally ordered that 16 people, including his own son, be hired without sitting the examinations.

Cesurer maintains his innocence, but transferred his responsibilities and duties to Tugcu.