Minister of Labor: We will solve the fiscal imbalance on wages

Vedat Bilgin, Minister of Labor and Social Security, said that there is still a fiscal imbalance in wages and said: “There is a problem that both Türk-İş and the president of TİSK brought me with their signatures on solving this problem, which I’m working too. Hopefully we’ll fix it,” he said.

The 17th Ordinary General Assembly of the Turkish Metal Union, held in Ankara, was attended by Minister Vedat Bilgin, as well as the President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş), Ergün Atalay, and the President of the Turkish Metal Union, Pevrul Kavlak.

‘WE DO NOT ALLOW CAPITAL TO MAKE A WORK ENVIRONMENT’

Bilgin pointed out that homeland and work are inseparable elements and said:

“We will protect our country and our work. Türkiye lived during the 19th century as an underdeveloped country. Since the 2000s, Türkiye has been changing its structure. We have come a long way in development. Only together can we overcome all the problems that we have faced in this whole period. We are not hostile to capital; but we do not allow capital to be hostile to labor. Because the Republic of Türkiye is a social state.

‘INFLATION DESTROYED THE FIXED INCOME OF WORKERS’

Bilgin affirmed that inflation destroys the fixed income of workers, saying: “We have taken various measures against this with the responsibility of the social state.”

Saying, “I am someone who wrote the letter ‘Let the minimum wage be excluded from taxes’ on the wall of a textile workshop in Ankara during my student years,” Bilgin said, “It is with the work that I prepared during my ministry and our President’s support for all wages to be excluded from tax not only the minimum wage, but the income from all wages at the minimum wage rate enacted and implemented Despite that, I know there is still a fiscal imbalance on wages”, he said.

“There is a problem that I am working on, which both Türk-İş and the president of TİSK brought me with their signatures to solve this problem. I hope we’ll figure it out as well,” Bilgin said, adding: “I don’t have a problem like ‘let’s do it before the election, let’s finish it before the election.’ We will already be in power in the next term. So let’s solve that problem. Nobody should worry.

‘WE WILL SOLVE THIS PROBLEM’

Recalling that they have solved the temporary worker problem, Bilgin said, “I was General Manager of Railways in 2000. At that time, I was faced with the temporary worker problem. I had temporary workers then, and I still have them today. We said, ‘This is endless temp work,’ and we had a chance to solve that problem. We have been blessed,” he said.

Bilgin said: “Therefore, I believe that all problems are solvable” and continued as follows:

“EYT is an unsolved problem for more than twenty years, the EYT problem has been solved. Most of the EYT members, about 950 thousand people, were workers. We solved your problem. As of April 1, those who deserve it will work with two salaries.

We also open employment opportunities. By lowering the social security support premium, we ensured that employers would benefit if they were allowed to work. There is a growing number as a result of some organizations reapplying for outsourcing. I promised to solve this problem too.

It was working and closing each file to be resolved. The last file I closed was the temporary worker file. Now this is before us. We’ll figure this out too, no one should worry.” (DHA)