Vedat Bilgin, Minister of Labor and Social Security, answered questions on the agenda in CNN Türk's live broadcast. Bilgin said that the issue of 3600 Additional Indicators will come to the Parliament in May-June at the latest and be completed within this year. Minister Bilgin, noting that Turkey continues to produce even during the pandemic period, said, “The world has a great crisis related to the pandemic. This hit most developed countries. Turkey continued to produce even when it was completely closed. The negative effects of this were localized, so people lost their income and socially disintegrated. Despite all these, Turkey has the means; It has successfully carried out this process in terms of financial conditions, health infrastructure and human capital of health. Inflation emerged as the cost of this. Turkey turned out to be very durable and successfully implemented a good process management. Inflation happened in Turkey as well as everywhere else, it was reflected more in Turkey because Turkey is a country in the development process," he said.
Reminding that Turkey is one of the two countries that grew after the pandemic among OECD countries, Bilgin said, “Turkey showed its strongest growth performance in 2021, growing for three consecutive quarters. Among the OECD countries, this performance of Turkey was also detected in the reports of the World Bank and the IMF. Even if there was no pandemic, development processes would cause problems. These are the times when social change processes accelerate. There will be problems, they intensify, but it is necessary to activate the applications that will overcome the problems," he said.
Regarding the studies on minimizing the difference between income levels, Minister Bilgin said, "One of the big problems created by the change processes is that Turkey has become a country where these problems are felt on the streets, but Turkey has given an answer to these problems, there are two ways to respond to this in times of intense economic problems. There are policies that will correct the income distribution, the first way is to transfer income from high-income groups to the following income groups. The other is to convey social services to the public widely and free of charge with social policy tools. Turkey has done this successfully. The dynamism of social services in the field of social work is extraordinary. It provides the highest quality, most luxurious health services to 99 percent of Turkey's population free of charge. This is much higher than the European average. Turkey's greatest achievement is that the dynamism of the social state stands and has a strong network.
“We Achieved a 36 Percent Increase in the Minimum Wage in a Period of 50% Inflation”
Mentioning that one of the most important tools of social policies is the minimum wage, Minister Bilgin said:
“We have increased the minimum wage to one hundred and fifty for the first time in history, which is a realistic increase. It was made in Turkey in other periods, but in the period when inflation was 120 percent, an increase of 48 percent was made. During the period when inflation was 36 percent in Turkey, the minimum wage was increased by 50 percent. We wanted to determine the social demands at the point of determining the minimum wage by having a research done. Turkey did this with the responsibility of being a social state in difficult conditions, this is a historical step. We achieved a 36 percent increase in a place where inflation was 50 percent. The intersection point of the common expectation of both workers and employers was that it was around 4000 TL. We made a 50 percent increase with the initiative of our President in terms of supporting psychology during the pandemic period under inflationary conditions, which was a very important increase. They always say that if the minimum wage rises, the number of unemployed will increase, but here we have given a very important support to the employer. While giving this support to our workers, we also provided an important support to the employer, and we provided tax exemption for all workers with a minimum wage, except for the minimum wage. The call for tax exemption was only about the minimum wage at the beginning, then it was said that the income of all wage earners at the minimum wage should be exempt from tax, and then came the demand of all employees and civil servants. In recent years, this demand of civil servants was not in question, it was not visible to the public. We've done all three of them. The tax exempt employer has no reason to lay off workers or pay the minimum wage. That tax provided a support between 450-500 TL. As in every minimum wage increase period, there were partial layoffs and then they got better. But in this period, it will be much less because the Turkish economy is growing rapidly, creating employment as it continues to grow. Last year, the Turkish economy created nearly 900 thousand additional employment in the industrial sector alone, and I believe that this will continue.”
“3600 Additional Indicators Will Be Submitted to the Parliament in May-June at the latest”
Sharing information on the 3600 Additional Indicators, which became a Collective Agreement article, Minister Bilgin said, “In the previous election, our President said that he would bring this issue to the agenda and that it would be settled within this election period. We have addressed this issue and turned it from being a discourse into a collective agreement clause. Collective bargaining has the force of law, so we have to do it. We did our work within the Ministry. Which groups should benefit from it? The 3600 Supplementary Indicator adjusts the wages of employees, but makes the main adjustment at their retirement. The wage differential between the retired and the employee is very high and it is an arrangement that will eliminate this. We have completed this work within the ministry, and now we will negotiate with our unions. In the third phase, we will negotiate with other public institutions. After these processes are over in the first 2022 months of 6, we will submit them to the Parliament in May-June at the latest, I think it will be finished before the end of the year.”
“We Are Working For The Contracted Personnel To Have Staff Rights”
Underlining that another problem in the public sector is contracted personnel with different statuses, Minister Bilgin said, “We will make these contracted employees have the same rights as permanent employees, but we will make this on a voluntary basis. It has too much contract status in the public, we will simplify it. We are working on arranging those who want to have staff rights. We will also decide on that work with our social partners. It ends within this year. These issues stand before us as very important assignments.”
“The Ministry of Labor and Social Security is First and foremost the Ministry of Employees and Workers”
Noting that he takes into account the criticisms from the opposition and constantly talks with unions with different world views, Minister Bilgin said, “As long as the demands of the labor they represent, they are in my field of duty and I will fulfill them. Our door is open to all employees 24 hours a day, every day. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security is, above all, the Ministry of workers and laborers. At the same time, it is a Ministry where employers' problems are resolved as a condition for employers and businesses to continue their business processes. It is very easy to reach me, stakeholders always reach me”.
Minister Bilgin reminded that he warned the employer about the workers who were fired at a workplace in Istanbul, and shared that a union with a different worldview also asked for help for a workplace in Izmir and that the same issue was about to be resolved in Izmir.
“The Contract We Have With Civil Servants Covers 6 Month Periods, It Will Be Arranged in July, Taking into account Re-Inflation Conditions”
Underlining that an important regulation has been made regarding the gains of public officials, Bilgin continued as follows:
“Our civil servants have also made a significant gain regarding the exclusion of the minimum wage from taxation. Moreover, there was no such demand from civil servants' unions in those days, so we made a contribution of nearly 300 TL for civil servants when we included them and excluded the minimum wage part of all employees' income from taxation. Child support for civil servants, assistance for non-working spouses, these are not provided under the Minimum Living Allowance (AGI). These are regulated by Law No. 657, the law on the status of civil servants. There was also a 31 percent increase in civil servants. They say that inflation was announced by 36 percent, you gave a 31 percent increase. A 31 percent raise, a 6-month raise. The inflation figure is 36 percent annually. The contract we made with the civil servants covers 6-month periods, so a regulation will be made again in July, taking into account the inflation conditions of that day. Moreover, this time around 3 percentage points of welfare was given.”
“All Payments of Civil Servants Out of AGI Continue”
Minister Bilgin, on a question regarding the Minimum Living Allowance arrangement, said, “There must be the necessary income for AGI, I am refunding the tax, the state says. Since we have excluded the minimum wage level from tax now, we neither collect nor refund taxes. AGI is seen as a deduction from a wage, whereas the tax paid by the employer is returned by the state. All payments outside of AGI for civil servants continue because they are regulated by law”.
“Retired Salary Increase Rate Reached 67 Percent”
Emphasizing the importance of increasing the wages of those who receive the lowest pension from 1500 TL to 2500 TL, Minister Bilgin said, “On top of these, a percentage increase was made, that is, an increase of 31 percent was made for retirees, just as we did for civil servants. When we reflect the 31 percent increase received by civil servants to retirees, the increase in retirees has reached 67 percent. The 31 percent increase will be rearranged in July, just like the civil servants. The State of the Republic of Turkey is a social state, the social state is a state that cares about its retirees and workers.
Stating that various supports were given to small tradesmen during the pandemic process, Bilgin pointed out that many regulations were made such as tax exemption, short-time working allowance, unemployment insurance allowance, and that the amount of support given only by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security was 62 billion TL with the applications that relieved small businesses.
Noting that questions and requests regarding working life are answered 170/7 via the ALO 24 line, Minister Bilgin said, "We provide 24-hour service with trained people who have direct knowledge of the business."
Stating that there is a small group left in the public sector regarding the contract workers, Bilgin said, “Our government hired highway workers and contract workers for the first time in Turkey. There is a very small group that remains in the public sector and we are working on them.”
Upon a question asked about the right to borrow from internship victims, Bilgin said, “When internships are made in various institutions, there are students who do internships, professional groups have internship issues, all of them have different groups. In some of them, health insurance is paid, but pension insurance is not paid. Some are more extensive. Those who do not count pension insurance face serious problems later on. He also has to work a few years more when his internship period is out of retirement. This needs to be resolved, we are working on it.”
“White Flag Implementation Will Be Announced in the Coming Days”
Reminding that one of the most important problems of working life is unregistered work, Minister Bilgin continued as follows:
“In order to eliminate the informal economy rather than the numbers, Turkey needs to do two things: Freedom of association needs to be expanded. Our employers are negative towards the union, on the contrary, they institutionalize the communication between the company and the employee. This mentality needs to be changed, there is no other way to solve the problems in front of informality. Another issue is that our unions need to try newer organizational models. Business type in Turkey is mostly Small Medium Enterprise. Since their number of workers is low, organizing into unions is not attractive. In order to encourage this issue, we will announce it to the press in the coming days through our Press and Public Relations Office. We are implementing the White Flag, and this is the meaning of the white flag, "There are organized workers here, union freedoms are used here". The lower corner of the flag, which means 'This workplace has no SSK premium debt, no tax debt, this is a clean workplace', reads 'Good job, organized workplace'. We will not only give flags to these businesses, we will provide some conveniences. This is an application that will also contribute to Turkey's labor peace.”
“The EYT Issue Is In Our Future Work Program, But We Are Solving The Problem Step By Step”
Bilgin also answered the question regarding the issue of Persons Aged at Retirement (EYT):
“The retirement issue is tied to 3 conditions: completion of the number of bonus days, the year, and the third age. The problem here is with those who haven't met the age requirement. There is a Constitutional Court decision on this matter, age is one of the conditions of this job, so that condition must be fulfilled as well. In our pension system, insurance systems are premium-based systems. In premium-based systems, there is a ratio between the number of people who will pay premiums and the number of people who will retire. The lowest limit of this is the establishment of a model that can finance 3 people and 1 pensioner. In Turkey, this figure has fallen below 2. Therefore, the state made this change by taking these into account while making these regulations. But those who were already working when this law was passed say that we were treated unfairly because we were planning our retirement because we got a job before this law was enacted. These are included in our upcoming work program, but we are solving problems gradually. Our priority problems are to improve the conditions of our current retirees, to solve the 3600 Additional Indicator issue and to make a comprehensive arrangement regarding the turmoil created by the contracted personnel in the public sector.
Stating that their work on contract rights and inflation differences arising from the Public Framework Protocol with the trade unions continues, Bilgin noted that they will deal with all the work in order of priority.
Pointing out that there are programs related to disabled citizens, Bilgin shared the information that they have made improvements in working life and added the rates of disabled people to the White Flag application.
Stating that new assignments were made on occupational health and safety, Minister Bilgin pointed out that he did not want a single work accident, but it was his duty to do so.
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