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Turkish imams call for overtime pay
 Turkey's tired imams should be given overtime pay to compensate for 18-hour days leading the nation's Muslims in prayer, an imams' union leader said Wednesday. Some 70,000 government-paid preachers rise at 4am to begin the daily call to prayer and do not finish until midnight, said Huseyin Demirci, head of Diva-Sen, one of the smaller clerics' unions representing some 2,000 imams. Turkish civil servants are paid overtime for exceeding a normal 40-hour five-day week but imams, also government workers, are excluded, Demirci said. "Imams are tied to their mosques from early morning until midnight and on national holidays. We want the overtime money we deserve for our extra effort," said Demirci, a former preacher. Posted by: Fred 2007-08-16 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=196285 |