Vedat Bilgin, Minister of Labor and Social Security, answered questions in Haber Global's live broadcast and made evaluations on the agenda.
When asked about the satisfaction of the workers with the newly determined minimum wage, Minister Bilgin said, “While evaluating wages, it is necessary to look within the conditions of the Turkish economy. The Turkish economy has become one of the few economies in the world that continues to grow after the pandemic. This year, it became one of the two economies that continue to grow in the world. In the latest data, it is extremely important that we grow based on the industry. The problems experienced in the world were reflected in Turkey as a heavy inflation. For two years, we have followed an open policy, seeing the problems that this process will create. The Republic of Turkey is a social state. It has an approach that protects the workers and takes care of the workers. We continued this approach with determination after the pandemic. Last year, we made a 50 percent increase in the minimum wage, then when inflation increased, we made an arithmetically above 80 percent increase and a cumulative 94 percent increase as of the end of the year, but inflation did not slow down. Inflation started to slow down last month, it will stop in the coming months, and our estimate is that we will enter May between 35 and 40 percent. It is very important to determine the minimum wage in this general table. Determining high is much more important, we have set high in these conditions. While explaining the figure of 8 thousand 500 TL, we had both a scientific study and a research with in-depth observation research techniques. We asked business owners, professional managers, union leaders, if any, and workers working there on a large, small, and medium scale. We asked the Turkish public. The figure we determined by evaluating the data we obtained is a very important figure. When we look at 8 thousand 500 TL historically, when we look at it in dollar terms, it is a very serious figure and it has created panic in some. Those who have expectations between 7 thousand 500 and 8 thousand were disturbed by this, but this will happen, we are a social state and we have to fulfill the requirements of the social state.
“We Will Legally Solve the Problems Between the Work Line Dam and the Workplace Dam”
When asked why a regulation was made above inflation by reminding the year-end inflation expectations reports and why the union representatives were not on the table despite this picture, Minister Bilgin replied as follows:
“We attach great importance to working with our unions because unions are organizations that represent labor. Unfortunately, the rate of unionization in Turkey is very low. The fact that 17 percent of the 14 million workers in Turkey are unionized is a very small percentage. I have repeatedly said that we need to work to pave the way for unionization. Strong unionism by collaborating with our unions broadens the social base of the Turkish economy, the social base of growth. I say that strong trade unionism and freedom of association should be paved as far as possible. We have other projects to promote this. There are some problems in the collective agreement system, we want to make arrangements to overcome them, and we will legally solve the problems between the industry threshold and the workplace threshold. I have changed the regulation on the determination of the sector of work, I want to make arrangements that will pave the way for organizing in accordance with the law. The Minimum Wage Determination Commission has three components; The employer and the workers are represented there in equal numbers, and there is a commission of 15 people as the State Ministry of Labor and Social Security. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security is not a party there, our main goal is to determine a minimum wage that will maintain the working conditions of the social state. This time, our worker representatives did not attend. They said, 'We won't sign if we don't get 9 thousand' and they didn't participate in a bargain they started very high, and that is at their discretion. We very much wanted this signature to be signed in the tripartite agreement.”
“There Was No Such Request From The Three Great Confederations”
Bilgin also clarified the words that he had said in a live broadcast program he had participated in before, "Some unions wanted the minimum wage not to exceed 8 thousand TL," and conveyed the following:
“We went to many workplaces and conducted a research. Organizing in small businesses is very difficult. There are small unions organized there. This is what the trade unionists out there reflected on us in the in-depth research. The unions wanted this within the scope of the research. The unions, the three big confederations that met with me did not make such a request. Small unions made such a demand because they were difficult to organize, could not make high-paying collective agreements, and were worried about workplace closures or mass expulsions of workers. We got this out of this: We need to go to strong unionism by paving the way for organizing.”
“We are at a competitive point in the use of technology in the industry”
When asked whether there will be additional incentives and supports for employers in case of a negative situation due to global conditions in the interim period, Minister Bilgin said, “The effects of the recession in Europe may harm us in terms of exports to Europe. It may put some brakes on our exports, but Turkey is very active in searching for new markets. It may not replace Europe immediately, but it will replace it over time. There are two very important reasons why the Turkish economy produces under competitive conditions; Democratic stability in Turkey and industrialization of Turkey, especially with young industry and the most advanced technologies. I visit industrial facilities in the cities I visit, where there are competitive technologies that we can call one or two in the world. Investments made by Turkey produce inputs not only in the defense industry but also in other industries. Especially in areas where communication technologies and production technologies are integrated, the efficiency of this young industry is increasing with the effect of digital industrialization. I am not saying that Turkey will not be affected by this, it may be, but I hope it will remain limited. I think that the latest industrial figures have shown this," he said.
Minister Bilgin, when asked about the latest situation regarding EYT studies and whether there will be an age requirement, said, “It will be considered possible that there will be an age range. The possible ages were discussed in the public opinion, it will cover various age ranges before us, how much cost it will reflect in which years, these are a matter of calculation within the Turkish economy. I'm not saying whether there will be an age requirement or not, but we will do the most inclusive as possible.”
“EYT File Will Have Go To Parliament Before January”
Pointing out that they will remove the EYT file from their desks before January comes and that it will go to the Parliament, Bilgin said, “The EYT members mainly work in the private sector. They will receive severance pay from employers, employers will take a loan on their behalf, but we are thinking of making the payment directly to the employee, not to the employer. Our Minister of Finance made a quick preparation on this issue and produced a solution for this problem. If retired people continue to work, we plan to bring the social security support premium to the same level as employees before they retire. Currently, their number reaches 1 million 900 thousand with the figures at the beginning of December. These numbers are increasing from month to month, and may exceed 2 million by the beginning of January. If there was no age requirement, 1 million 900 thousand people who fulfilled the other two conditions would have been able to retire at the same time. About 400 thousand of them are civil servants, about 480 thousand are bond-founders, and close to 1 million are insured people, which we call 4/A. The number of people who do not have a job, do not work anywhere but are waiting for their age is 274 thousand people. If they have completed the number of premium days, if they have completed their insurance period in retirement, they are also covered. This is the total coverage of those who will retire immediately. If there is an age requirement, roughly half of this figure will retire this year and half next year. In fact, with this regulation, called reform, in 99, the state made an arrangement that would ensure that our pension insurance system would maintain itself. A certain stage has been reached in this regulation, where at least 3 employees finance their pensions with insurance premiums of a retiree. It had dropped to 1.7 for us, now it's above 2.1. If we make this arrangement, it will probably decrease to 2 or 1.9, but since the age will gradually increase from now on, I think we can increase it to 2.5 or 3 at a certain point, since the labor force participation rate of the young population is still high in Turkey.
When asked about the increase in civil servants and pensions, Minister Bilgin said, “Last year, we increased our public employees and civil servants above the inflation rate. Our work continues this year. We will share this with the public in a very short time, before or just after the New Year's Eve.”
Reminding that the minimum pension is 3 thousand 500 liras, Bilgin said that there are approximately 500 thousand people in this group from Bağ-Kur or with very limited contributions. Minister Bilgin noted that a study will be carried out with the understanding of a social state for those in this group as well.
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