Minister Işıkhan's statement on 'public worker pay raises': Points to August

Responding to questions on a live broadcast on CnnTürk, Minister Işıkhan began his remarks by saying, "First of all, I would like to convey my best wishes to all the people of Istanbul, and as you know, Kütahya was also shaken yesterday, to my brothers and sisters in Kütahya and all our citizens who felt the earthquake."

Highlights from the statements of Minister of Labor Vedat Işıkhan are as follows:

"EARTHQUAKES ARE NOT A TOOL FOR POLITICS"

The earthquake shows us once again that we are actually living in an earthquake zone. Thank God there was no loss of life, which I think is a positive aspect. You know that all our state's resources have been mobilized since the very first day the earthquake occurred. Starting with our President, our ministers, and all our public institutions and organizations began to take charge here from the moment of the earthquake.

I want to underline that issues such as urban transformation projects, construction, inspection systems, and earthquake regulations are vital and are too important to be used as political material. We cannot prevent earthquakes, but we can build cities that are prepared for earthquakes, stronger cities. This is actually in our hands. The shortest and most direct way to achieve this is urban transformation. As our Minister of Environment and Urbanization stated in a program yesterday, we need to transition to urban transformation rapidly.

I especially urge our citizens to quickly enter the urban transformation process for buildings that carry earthquake risk, whether they are damaged, slightly damaged, or heavily damaged, with the facilities provided by our state. I pray that God protects our country and our nation from such disasters.

'MUNICIPALITIES HAVE 196 BILLION IN DEBT'

For the sustainability of our social security system, we have only one source of income. This income consists of the insurance premiums we collect from our employers and public institutions. However, following the issue that our President expressed repeatedly before the May 31 elections regarding the payment of premium debts, believe me, we have entered into close communication with all municipalities. I want to state here that we approach all municipalities equally, regardless of political party affiliation. Because after paying the wages of our workers, the premium debts must definitely be deposited into the SGK (Social Security Institution). In this context, I would like to thank all our municipalities and mayors who pay their premiums regularly in your presence. Because we have a great need for these premiums to ensure the sustainability of our social security system and to maintain the balance of inputs and outputs. However, we noticed that some municipalities are struggling more due to their premium debts and have taken actions to avoid paying their debts. In other words, the most logical method is that mayors also have a financial responsibility. As a requirement of financial responsibility, premiums must be paid to the SGK.

In a program 2-3 months ago in March, it was 96 billion, but now 100 billion more has been added to this figure with interest. We realized that this is unsustainable and contacted our municipalities and mayors. Because as the SGK, our main goal is to ensure communication, and we invited them to address the fact that there are premium debts and to pay these debts. Many municipalities have entered into cooperation with us. Regarding your question, 149 municipalities have applied to the SGK to pay a total of 30 billion in premium debts. In this process, we actually told our municipalities that they could either pay their premium debts in installments or show us real estate that does not have liens or mortgages on them, and they could show them as collateral, and we could restructure their debts.

'WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF 85 MILLION WORKERS, EMPLOYEES, AND RETIREES'

The plots or real estate they offered us have mortgages on them. We brought this up at the SGK board of directors; how can we accept these plots? We go back and say that the real estate you gave us has liens on it; you must definitely correct this, change it, or bring us other alternatives. We established communication at that point. Now, the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality has entered into a new restructuring process; teams are working mutually. And we can say that we have reached a point regarding the collection of premiums. As the state, we are doing our job based on the authority granted to us by our legislation. We do not look at party affiliation. We are responsible for protecting the rights of 85 million workers, employees, and retirees.

Health is very important to us. Unfortunately, we see that chronic diseases, cancer, rare diseases, and mental health illnesses are increasing not only in our country but also in the world within this health system. Along with this, dementia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's diseases have started to become more prominent. Our responsibility is increasing; why is it increasing? Because as the Social Security Institution, we also finance the use of effective drugs. Our elderly population ratio is increasing day by day. We are shaping our policies accordingly.

"8 THOUSAND 873 DRUGS ARE COVERED BY THE SGK"

I would like to talk about the drugs that are within the scope of reimbursement. In particular, the number of drugs used in cancer treatment is 818. Including 91 drugs procured from abroad, the number of drugs we have included in the social security reimbursement list is 909. As of today, we are gradually increasing the number of drugs taken into the scope of reimbursement in line with the principles determined by our commissions.

I would like to share these with you according to current figures. A total of 8,873 drugs, 8,475 domestic and 398 from abroad, are covered by the SGK. In 2024, the number of drugs we included in the reimbursement scope is 432 new drugs. Two of these are foreign drugs used in cancer treatment. A total of 425 drugs, 51 of which are used in cancer treatment, have become available for use in our country.

'WE HAVE INCLUDED ANOTHER SMA DRUG IN THE REIMBURSEMENT SCOPE'

I hope we will have the opportunity to share this with our SMA patients and their families. But I would especially like to make some statements if you allow me. Now, health is very important to us. Unfortunately, we see that chronic diseases, cancer, rare diseases, and mental health illnesses are increasing not only in our country but also in the world within this health system.

Along with this, dementia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's diseases have started to become more prominent. We are in such a situation that there is now a cancer patient in every family. God forbid, it is a very serious disease with a very difficult treatment process. Alzheimer's is the same. We encounter such cases in almost every home. Now, our obligation and responsibility here are increasing. Why is it increasing? Because as the Social Security Institution, we finance the use of effective drugs. Besides this, you know that our elderly population ratio is also increasing. Life expectancy at birth is 79, and it has now reached 80. And there is a projection that our elderly population ratio could rise above 10% to 11-12% in the future. We are shaping our policies accordingly. As you know very well, health expenses increase with old age and retirement. We know this from our relatives and elders.

"9 THOUSAND OF OUR CITIZENS RECEIVE ORPHAN PENSIONS THROUGH FAKE DIVORCES"

This is actually a subject we frequently encounter in society. As the SGK, we declared 2024 as the year of inspection, Mr. Abdülkadir, to fight against informality, irregularities, and abuses. And it is still ongoing. There is a structure that continues through 2024, 2025, 2026, and beyond. We do not neglect this. Inspection is one of our most important functions. And here, within 2024, we carried out an inspection based on risk analysis involving around 1 million cases. We carried out these inspections based on nearly 1 million risk analyses, also benefiting from artificial intelligence. We observed that there were incidents such as fake workplaces, fake insurance, and collusive insurance entries. And we have put this under follow-up. In the examinations made only through fake divorces, it was determined that approximately 9 thousand people receive orphan pensions through fake divorces. 9 thousand of our citizens are receiving orphan pensions through fake divorces.

This is a very important issue; we have initiated proceedings regarding 7400 of them. We have both initiated the recovery of the paid amounts and interest, and filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office. Here, we are actually discussing not just the acquisition of unfair gain, but also the sustainability of our social security system. On one hand, a citizen who pays their premiums in a healthy and regular manner pays for the social security system. When they get sick, God forbid, or catch a disease, they go to the hospital and receive treatment. But on the other hand, we are approving informality through such fraudulent, irregular, and deceitful ways by turning the small gaps that exist in the system into opportunities. And we will hopefully carry out our inspections with this frequency by adopting a zero-tolerance policy against fraud throughout this year and in the coming years.

"WE HAVE NEARLY 460 CITIZENS WHO ARE 38 YEARS OLD AND HAVE RETIRED BY BENEFITING FROM EYT"

As you know, we removed the age requirement for retirement for those whose first insurance entry was before September 8, 1999. With this EYT (Retirement at Age of Eligibility) regulation, 3,123,000 of our citizens have retired to date. Currently, 3,123,000 of our citizens have retired. The first-year cost of this regulation is 724 billion liras. When we evaluate it cumulatively over the next 5 years, its cost will be 3.4 trillion liras. This is a serious cost when we evaluate it comprehensively.

At the same time, I also evaluate it as a loss of manpower. In this system, there are nearly 460 of our citizens who are 38 years old and have retired by benefiting from EYT. They are only 38 years old and have already retired from EYT. Of course, as the Minister of Labor and Social Security, we will focus our efforts on the sustainability of a healthy, fair, and secure social security system for both our citizens and our insured. Of course, how will we do this? As I said a moment ago, by increasing employment, perhaps we will have the opportunity to touch upon women's employment. We are in a position to compete with developed countries abroad and even surpass them in terms of employment by constantly increasing our employment rates here and implementing new-generation work models.

WAGE REGULATION FOR PUBLIC WORKERS

First of all, it is an important process where the wages of 600 thousand workers will be determined and the social and economic rights of public workers will be determined. However, we want to express that this process needs to be managed in a multi-party, comprehensive, and careful manner. As always, social dialogue is our most important starting point. At the same time, we also need to observe institutional balances while making preparations and studies. We are also paying attention to issues such as inflation data, public financial balances, and the sustainability of the employer. At the same time, we want to establish a structure where the sweat of our workers can be fully compensated before it dries. As our President always emphasizes, we are striving to ensure a balance that protects labor while also observing the real economy. Türk-İş and Hak-İş have conveyed their proposals to us. Of course, that commission has its own internal working system.

They come together at certain time intervals, but I also estimate that this process will conclude with a consensus at a certain point after a certain period. Hopefully, we desire to complete this collective bargaining process by shaking hands with our workers when leaving the table.

In August, we will also go through the collective bargaining processes covering the years 2026-2027, especially for our public officials, civil servants, and contract personnel. Because this process is carried out in August by law.

Ultimately, while carrying out this process with both our workers and our civil servants, we will strive to manage fair and sustainable solutions that will create maximum satisfaction for all parties while observing economic balances, by protecting labor peace. Because as the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, if you remember, we carried out the collective bargaining processes with our civil servants in 2023 last year. There, we also determined this wage increase by coming together with our civil servants, unions, and confederations through social dialogue. Hopefully, we will successfully conclude this year as well.

News Source: 12punto