Memur-Sen: the president’s promise has not been fulfilled

The Public Arbitration Commission determined the salary increase for public officials and servants for the years 2024 and 2025.

The authorized union Memur-Sen, for its part, stated that “Turkey has ignored its mission, which cares about workers and workers”; He also criticized the government, which is a public employer, because “people on fixed incomes have also been crushed by high inflation in recent years.”

Memur-Sen stressed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s promise was not fulfilled, saying, “It has been pointed out that the links between the civil servant and the retirees have been broken due to the statements that the lowest salary of the civil servant would be The increase to 22,000 lire did not materialize and this payment was not reflected in retirees,” he said.

15 percent for the first six months, 10 percent for the second six months by 2024; The decision to increase 6+5 percent by 2025 was published in the Official Gazette. It was seen that the decision was made with 6 votes against 5.

Objections from the licensed Memur-Sen union were also included in the decision. Recalling that they demanded an increase in 3-month increments, not 6-month intervals, Memur-Sen said: “Given the forecast that inflation will remain high in 2024, it has been clearly said that civil servants must be protected The inflationary pressure and the inflation difference must be reflected without waiting a period of 6 months”.

‘CRUSHED BY FIXED INCOME INFLATION’

Memur-Sen noted that the Central Bank expects inflation of 58 percent by the end of 2023, 33 percent in 2024, and 15 percent in 2025:

“The increase in the dollar exchange rate, which especially affects the prices of energy, raw materials and many other products, is one of the most important causes of high inflation. Fixed income earners have also been hit hard by high inflation in recent years.

The high inflation that has arisen in recent years has especially disturbed the fairness of income distribution between groups and has created a situation against fixed-income groups in the context of the factorial distribution of income and income groups. medium and low income in the context of percentage shares. . In addition, it is clear that the increases in some direct and indirect taxes in the last two months have especially affected fixed income”.

Memur-Sen criticized the AKP government, which is a public employer, as “Turkey ignored its mission to care about workers and workers” and said: “The public employer’s offer of an unrealistic percentage increase to the market and the rhetoric focused on the inflation difference delay; It is incompatible with the understanding that civil servants will not be crushed by inflation.

ERDOĞAN’S PROMISE WAS NOT KEPT

Memur-Sen also claimed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s promise of “the lowest salary for civil servants is 22,000 lira” was not fulfilled:

“…It has been pointed out that the norm of 8 thousand 77 liras and the statements that the lowest salary of civil servants would increase to 22 thousand liras were not met, and since this payment was not reflected in retirees, the bonus between the public servant and the retiree cut himself…

Announced by our Honorable President on May 11, 2023: ‘Thus, the lowest salary of civil servants will reach 22 thousand lira. These increases in the salaries of public servants will be automatically reflected in their retirees. The additional increase, which is clearly expressed in the statement and does not admit of discussion or different interpretation, should also be reflected in retired public officials.

On the other hand, the fact that the additional payment was made in a way that generated great controversy and generated problems in the public personnel system, due to the fact that it was not made through the base salary or other concepts reflected in the pension, created a gap of more than 50 percent between existing staff salary and pension. Although it was proposed, the Arbitration Committee did not even have the opportunity to discuss this issue. Therefore, the Board did not show a positive attitude towards the desire to increase the level of welfare of retired civil servants and to fully fulfill the promise. (PHOENIX)