Türk-İş President Ergün Atalay stated that negotiations on the 2023 collective labor agreement, which affects about 700,000 public workers, have officially started. Atalay visited Vedat Bilgin, Minister of Labor and Social Security.

Atalay, who made statements to reporters after the meeting, which lasted approximately 45 minutes, said: “Today we officially start the 2023 collective negotiations on 700,000 public workers.”

Atalay stated that they met with Minister Bilgin at today’s first official meeting on the collective bargaining agreement and said:

“Now, after this minimum wage, at the start of our demands in 2023, we need to make an improvement, especially at the base. In other words, our friends from 10-15 years old approached the level of the minimum wage, we have such a problem. This is one of our requests. Immediately after, the social participation will be delivered to our colleagues, effective as of January 1, and then an increase for workers to be delivered in 2023”.

Noting that the Chairman of the Coordination Board and Financial Secretary General Ramazan Ağar on behalf of Türk-İş participated in the meetings, Atalay said that they will hold a joint meeting on Monday with the participation of HAK-İŞ Vice Presidents.

SUBCONTRACTOR CALL

Underscoring that a solution must be found regarding subcontractors, Atalay said: “The government has a word for us regarding 696 staff members in 2019. We need to get the word subcontractor off the agenda in this country, especially from the SEE. In other words, this is the demand of Turk-Is and the unions, ”he said.

Recalling that Minister Bilgin had a statement on temporary workers, Atalay said: “As Türk-İş, personally and as an administration, we are concerned about the issue of pensioners, the issue of the civil servant and the issue of small traders. For this reason, one of our demands in these contract negotiations is the issue of subcontractors and temporary workers. We need to figure this out in this period.” he used his statements.

Explaining that there does not seem to be a problem with retirees, Atalay said that they repeated their requests regarding the appointment of spouses, who constantly go to them and to the ministry, to Minister Bilgin to seek a solution in conditions of family peace.

WILL IT BE THE INCREASE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE RATE?

Atalay pointed out that there are millions of people who have worked in institutions for 10-15 years, who are experts in their professions and receive a salary just one click above the minimum wage, when asked by journalists if the requested increase will be in the rate of the minimum wage.

“Whatever it takes, our commission will sit down with HAK-İŞ and decide. In other words, society will agree, as I said with the minimum wage, we will be satisfied, ‘This is good.’ If you have something to say, we’d be happy to sit down and figure it out, this is our request. I think we’ll figure it out, so I hope we get a good number that meets the expectations of society here.” (AA)