600 thousand public sector workers await the first wage offer after the holiday

A critical threshold is being crossed in the process of the 2025-2026 Public Collective Labor Agreement talks, which closely concern about 600,000 public workers. The fourth round of talks will be held after Eid al-Adha, and the government will present its first official pay-rise offer at this meeting.

FIRST OFFER COMING AFTER EID

Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan announced that the first pay-rise offer for public workers would be presented after Eid al-Adha. Minister Işıkhan said, “We are conducting the process together with the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. God willing, after the holiday, we will present our first offer to our public workers. Negotiations will begin with TÜHİS’s offer. I believe we will complete the process in agreement with our unions.”

The Turkish Heavy Industry and Service Sector Public Employers’ Union (TÜHİS), which represents the public employer side, has also completed its preparations regarding workers’ demands.

UNIONS’ PAY-RISE DEMAND IS CLEAR

The 21-article draft jointly agreed by Türk-İş and Hak-İş clearly sets out demands on behalf of public workers. One of the most notable requests was to raise the lowest daily gross wage of workers employed in the public sector to 1,800 lira.

Other demands highlighted in the draft are as follows:

A 50 percent wage increase for the first 6 months of 2025,

25 percent raises for the second half of 2025 and for both halves of 2026,

An additional 10 percent welfare share for each period.

DEMAND FOR INFLATION DIFFERENCE AND SENIORITY RAISE

Another critical demand from the labor confederations is that the inflation difference be reflected in salaries. Accordingly, if the actual inflation rate exceeds the projected raise, the difference will be paid to workers. The unions are also demanding that the seniority raise be included in the wage increase.

WHICH SECTORS DOES THE AGREEMENT COVER?

The scope is quite broad. The Public Collective Labor Agreement in question covers workers employed in many public institutions such as:

Highways, railways,

Electricity generation and distribution facilities,

Ministries,

Universities,

State hospitals.

For this reason, about 600,000 public workers will be watching closely for the government’s first pay-rise offer to be announced at the meeting after Eid.