DİSK President Çerkezoğlu reacts to Mehmet Şimşek: 'It is incompatible with reason and conscience'

The minimum wage in Turkey has fallen below the hunger threshold. The AKP government, meanwhile, has closed the door on demands for a minimum wage hike in July, which have come primarily from the CHP.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said in a television program he attended today, "The minimum wage in Turkey is not low." Şimşek stated, "Look at the countries in Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and compare them with Latin America, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and in Europe, Bulgaria and Hungary. Except for Poland, we have the highest minimum wage among developing countries."

DİSK President Arzu Çerkezoğlu announced the "Minimum Wage and Tax Report" prepared by DİSK-AR.

Highlights from Çerkezoğlu's statement are as follows:

In order to cheapen labor, employers are being allowed to usurp union rights, ILO conventions are being blatantly violated, more than half of the Turkish working class is being condemned to the minimum wage, and the minimum wage is being deliberately crushed by inflation.

REACTION TO MINISTER ŞİMŞEK

To say today that the minimum wage in Turkey is high is not a statement that is compatible with reason, logic, or conscience.

As is known, we advocate for wages to be increased four times a year under high inflation; we want the choices that impoverish workers, laborers, and retirees, and the policies aimed at suppressing wages, to be abandoned. In other words, we want 'justice in income'.

"To say today that the minimum wage in Turkey is high is not a statement that is compatible with reason, logic, or conscience" pic.twitter.com/AK0mN9qq2S

— DİSK (@diskinsesi) July 1, 2024

News Source: 12punto