Union reacts sharply to salary increase offer for civil servants: This cannot be the final offer

Yalçın made the following statement regarding the salary increase offer:

"Since the day collective bargaining began, we have always said the same thing. We said there is income inequality, there is wage imbalance. Because if you do not fix it here, it will continue for a long time. This was a debate that existed in the old Turkey. The extreme wage injustice among employees, a situation where a supervisor earns less than the staff under their command, exhausted Turkey for a long time. And it became a subject of paradoxes. But this had been corrected. Now it has reversed in the same way. If these figures, by adding 2 points to the 10+6 offer that the Minister just presented to us, saying 11+7 for 2026 and leaving 2027 at 4+4, with a 1000 TL base salary increase—we made a statement about this recently—such a thing cannot be. We said the address is correct but the amount is wrong. Calling this the final offer with these figures, such a thing cannot be. This cannot be the final offer. Because with these figures and this situation, there will never be industrial peace in the public sector. The civil servant will not be happy, and this will negatively affect our nation. No one should give an opportunity for this, no one should be the cause of this.

"THE FIGURES ARE TRULY RIDICULOUS"

Therefore, our effort here is to correct this. Today, we stopped work in 81 provinces and gathered with tens of thousands of people at Anadolu Square and raised our voices. By marching to the Ministry of Finance and presenting our files to the Ministry of Finance once again, we are waiting for a solution on this issue. We said we do not want voting at the collective bargaining table. In this respect, the figures expressed are truly ridiculous. Why? As I just stated, the lowest civil servant salary is 47,500. The salary of a single service worker. If you do not ensure wage balance between two employees working side-by-side in the same status, one bringing glasses full and one taking them away empty, one sweeping and the other mopping, both standing at the door as security guards, if you leave one at 66 and the other at 47,500, does this work? This imbalance must be prevented. This exhausts the public sector. This saddens the public sector, and employees will be unhappy from now on. No one should give an opportunity for this. We can never accept such a thing. It is impossible to accept this offer in this sense. We will never accept the phrase 'final offer'. There is no such thing. The table continues. The table will continue tomorrow. The table can be operated until the morning of the next day. There is no problem in this regard. We are doing our best to keep the process running 24/7 on this issue.

"IT IS NOT SOMETHING ACCEPTABLE"

We have other proposals on the table. From engineers to branch managers, from academics to administrative staff, from the general administrative services class to all other areas, including the issue of the year of the family, we have many proposals on the table. From the 3600 additional indicator to granting a degree, these are all issues discussed at the table and awaiting solutions. They must also be corrected. They must be fulfilled in this sense with service branch proposals. But the most important criterion here is the criterion that our President will adjust the lowest civil servant salary in the public sector to be above the lowest worker salary, which is extremely important.

This is valuing labor, valuing education, valuing hard work, not breaking people's dreams, and not crushing their hopes. This is a very important criterion. Whose government ministers are the Minister and the Minister of Finance? Fulfilling this promise of our President is their primary duty in this sense. Therefore, I would like to express here in particular that this promise should be fulfilled and that wage inequality should not continue any further. As much as public officials, public official retirees are also victims in this sense.

Can you talk about a midwife who has served for 30 years surviving on a place where the lowest pension is 22 lira? Therefore, the flat increase should be reflected, and by improving the base salary, the gap should be narrowed at least a little, and we insisted on a 10,000 TL improvement in the base salary so that the gap between the duty salary and the pension salary gradually closes.

We asked for a 10-point welfare share for our losses in the past period and insisted on a proportional increase to ensure this wage balance and establish industrial peace in the public sector. All our effort is sincerely this. We want the civil servant not to be unhappy. Let the civil servant be happy, let everyone celebrate after this table.

But trying to send us away from here by offering us these figures and calling it the final offer is not something acceptable. Yes, the Minister said. He said we will continue to discuss the remaining service branch proposals and general proposals until the last moment, but we cannot settle for just those. These rates must be increased. They must absolutely, definitely come in a way that closes the gap between two employees in different statuses in the public sector, as I just stated. Otherwise, this does not end here."