Bad news for millions of civil servants and retirees

An important decision concerning millions of civil servants and retirees has been issued by the Constitutional Court (AYM). The High Court rejected the request to stay the execution of the Public Arbitration Board's salary increase decision, reasoning that poverty does not "constitute a serious threat to a person's material and moral integrity."

According to a report by Erdoğan Süzer from Sözcü, the process that brought the legal basis for the low salary increase rates for retirees and employees into question was initiated by Seyfettin Çilesiz, Honorary Member of the 7th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation. Having previously sued the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), accusing it of "lowering salary increases by announcing inflation rates that do not reflect reality," Çilesiz this time took the Public Arbitration Board's decision, which determines the salary increases for civil servants and retirees for the 2026-2027 period, to the Constitutional Court.

"STOP THE INCREASES" REQUEST

In his application, Çilesiz emphasized that although the government set the inflation target for 2026 at 20 percent, civil servants and retirees were only given a total increase of 18.8 percent. Arguing that this situation would "deepen impoverishment," especially for those on fixed incomes, Çilesiz had requested that the salary increase in question be both stayed as a precautionary measure and annulled.