KESK announced its collective agreement demands

The Confederation of Unions of Public Workers (KESK) demanded that the lowest salary of civil servants be increased to at least 45 thousand lira from January 2024 with the help of the spouse, child allowance and rent.

KESK co-chair Mehmet Bozgeyik announced at a hotel press conference his demands for the Seventh Term Public Collective Agreement, which will determine the financial and social rights of civil servants and retirees in 2024 and 2025.

‘SEYYANEN’S RISE IS NOT REFLECTED IN BASE MONEY’

Bozgeyik claimed that public worker wages have melted and their purchasing power has declined due to flawed collective bargaining processes.

“When we add the numbers one after the other, it seems that the salary they call the lowest salary of civil servants has reached 22 thousand lira. But the deception already begins here. The net 8,077 lira, called the additional mobile subsidy, was not reflected in the base pension. This means that 8,077 lira will not be reflected in anything, from our pension to our compensation, from spouse and child benefits, to our additional course fees, to our participation in the revolving fund.”

THEY DEMANDED 45 THOUSAND LIRA

Stating that the additional mobile allowance given to all public workers as 8,138 lira 89 cents gross should be included in the monthly base coefficient, Bozgeyik said:

“This is the only way for retired civil servants to benefit from this increase. We want the 2024 increase to be based on this new coefficient. We anticipate that the poverty line for a family of four will rise by at least 70 percent and reach 45,000 lira by December 2023.

From this point of view, in our proposed collective agreement, we demand that the current salary of the employee in the 1st level of the 15th grade, who receives the lowest salary, is unemployed, has two children, is homeless, and is 22,000 lira with an additional subsidy of 8,077 lira, which will be increased to at least 45,000 lira, together with the spouse, child allowance and rent subsidy, from January 2024.

To do this, we want the current tragicomic level of benefits for spouse and children to increase by the minimum amount of spending on food, and rental aid to all non-residential public workers in the field of the right to housing.

Bozgeyik demanded that the spousal benefit be increased to 3,310 lira, the child allowance to 2,220 lira for each child, and that 7,500 lira be given to homeless public workers in metropolitan cities and 5,000 lira in other cities. (AA)