Minister Işıkhan announces signing of 'additional wage increase protocol for public workers'

The additional protocol signing ceremonies, held separately with TÜRK-İŞ and HAK-İŞ at the Reşat Moralı Hall of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, were attended by Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan and TÜHİS Secretary General Adnan Çiçek.

Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan, in his speech at the ceremony, recalled that the Collective Bargaining Framework Agreement Protocol covering the 2023-2024 period was signed on May 9, 2023.

Reminding that the lowest wage for workers was increased to 15 thousand liras with the contract in May, Işıkhan said, "On top of this 15 thousand lira wage, a 45 percent raise, including the welfare share, was applied for the first 6 months of 2023, and improvements were made in other items as well. During that period, we had signed the collective bargaining agreement with the full consensus of our worker confederations and unions."

“WE HAVE TAKEN A DECISION REGARDING EQUALIZATION”

Işıkhan stated that the worker confederations had submitted a request for a new additional protocol due to calendar differences regarding the wage periods of collective bargaining agreements. Pointing out that the start dates of collective bargaining agreements are an important factor in determining the wages to be received and the inflation difference, Işıkhan continued as follows:

"The differentiation of inflation rates in certain months within the year causes public workers to receive different wage increases due to the calculation of the inflation difference. For this reason, we have taken a decision to equalize the wage increases received by public workers in January with those of public workers whose contracts have different effective dates. This additional protocol has emerged as a result of the work we have been conducting with our worker confederations for about a month."

Stating that they have ensured that public workers whose contract periods have not yet arrived can also benefit from the increase made to public workers in January 2024 within their collective bargaining periods, Işıkhan announced that it was also decided with the additional protocol to make a regulation so that the effective date of public worker collective bargaining agreements will be January 1, 2025, in order to prevent such differences in new term collective bargaining agreements.

“LABOR IS SACRED TO US”

Emphasizing that they view the welfare of public employees as the welfare of Turkey, Işıkhan noted the following:

"With the strong will of our President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as he has repeatedly stated at every opportunity, we said we would not let any of our citizens be crushed by inflation, and we did not. We all know very well that sweat and labor are sacred to us. For this reason, we have viewed the welfare of our workers, who build our country stone by stone and contribute to our development and growth, as our own issue. In today's additional protocol, we have shown maximum sensitivity to protecting all necessary financial and social balances."

“AN ISSUE CONCERNING 230 THOUSAND WORKERS”

TÜRK-İŞ Chairman Ergün Atalay also stated that the issues of taxes and subcontractors have been on the agenda of Turkey's working life for some time.

Atalay provided information to Minister Işıkhan regarding the demands of subcontractors.

Emphasizing that two months of the salary workers receive in a year go to tax deductions, Atalay said that this system is the same for all employees and that the system is not sustainable.

Reminding that some of the workers employed in the public sector are members of TÜRK-İŞ and some are members of HAK-İŞ, Atalay said, "Mr. Minister, this is not a negligible task you have done. This is an issue that concerns 230 thousand workers. This is not a small thing. Those whose contract start date is January received 32.57 percent. Contract start dates after January continue through February, March, April, May, and up to August. They do not have the opportunity to receive this 32.57 percent; the table shows that. On average, there is a loss of between 10 and 14 points in the worst-case scenario. With this signature we have placed today, we are eliminating a large part of this loss."

“WE REACHED A CONSENSUS AT A CERTAIN POINT”

HAK-İŞ Chairman Mahmut Arslan, in his speech, thanked those who contributed to the successful conclusion of the process regarding the additional protocol and stated that they had signed successful public collective bargaining agreements last year.

Arslan said, "As much as possible, of course, we had a demand to move the start of our collective bargaining agreements, not the end, to January 1st, so that the raise at the full inflation rate would be applied to everyone. We had a demand to make an improvement by raising the 32.57 a little more."

“NEW STEPS HAVE BEEN TAKEN”

Expressing that their demands, the difficulties experienced, and the expectations of their members from them are the most natural result of the trade union movement, Arslan noted the following:

"We are struggling to meet these expectations. There is a difficult period that Turkey is going through. Taking all of this into account, we were in search of a compromise, knowing that the figures we obtained are not figures to be underestimated. We met with you several times, and we worked in coordination with our Vice President and TÜRK-İŞ. At the point we have reached, not all of our demands were met, but we reached a consensus at a certain point, and new steps were taken."

Minister Işıkhan and TÜHİS Secretary General Adnan Çiçek signed the additional protocol of the contract concerning public workers with TÜRK-İŞ Chairman Atalay at the first ceremony and with HAK-İŞ Chairman Arslan at the second program.

News Source: AA