Türk-İş President Atalay: 'We Will Start the Minimum Wage Negotiation from 7 Liras'

Türk-İş President Ergün Atalay made statements before the minimum wage meeting.

Some of the headlines from Atalay's statement are as follows: “After the minimum wage is over 50 days later, these friends will receive their wages. Until now, we have tried not to talk about these issues related to the minimum wage. It's been 40 years since talks about the minimum wage. Türk-İş did not participate on the 36th. Participated in 6 of them. The Minimum Wage Commission is not a fair commission. The Supreme Arbitration Board is not a fair commission. These are the problematic issues left to us from September 12. The commission consists of 15 people. We are 5 persons. Whether we are or not, they have implemented this 34 times until today when the employer and the government sat down.

If there is such an opportunity, there is a fair commission. Even if all of them are on the minimum wage in the commission. Everyone has been talking about this for 5 months. Everyone explains a number. 10 thousand 170 liras for a single worker. It's easy to say numbers. Taxes affect the entire society. 20 years ago, the tax was 20 times the minimum wage, today it is not even 5 times. Those who govern the country regarding taxation need to make a regulation.

Labor is in distress, the worker is in distress. Today, our commission will start negotiating the minimum wage from the hunger limit of 7 lira, wherever we can go above it. If there is a figure that will please the society, if there is a figure that will please the commission, if there is a figure that will please the presidents, if there is a figure that I will agree with, we will sit down and sign it. We did the same yesterday, and we will do the same today. Today, the commission will not sit for 785 thousand 5 liras, the figure it will sit on is 500 thousand 7 liras, which is the hunger cost of a worker. This is not our offer.”