The minimum wage determination commission convened yesterday hosted by Turkish Confederation of Employer Association (TİSK). The statements made by the representatives of the government, workers and employers after the meeting revealed the tension in the commission. In the meeting, where a figure was not disclosed, eyes are turned to the last meeting. Speaking after the meeting, General Manager of Labor Nurcan Önder said that in the calculation of the government wing with the old formula, the minimum wage changes between 2,979 TL and 3,567 TL. Onder's words about the figures demands of the parties, on the other hand, are confusing. Stating that the employer side offered 3,100 TL, Önder noted that the worker side defended the figure of 3,900 TL.
TİSK REJECTS THE GENERAL MANAGER'S CLAIMS
However, the figure announced by Önder is rejected at first hand. TİSK Secretary General Akansel Koç, who took the floor after Önder, noted that they did not say a figure like 3,100 TL. “We do not have an offer of 3,100 TL. We will find the middle ground. As employer, we do not want the minimum wage earners to be crushed by inflation," Akansel Koç said.
EMPLOYEE SIDE FIND THE MEETING UNRELIABLE
‘Türk-İş’ Secretary General Nazmi Irgat stated that the commission could not make a reliable decision and said, “There is a difference between the inflation announced by Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) and the inflation we experience in real life. We see that exchange rates have increased by 85 percent. The decrease in the purchasing power of people with the abnormally increasing inflation in the last one and half months has put people with low income in even more difficult situation. We expect a minimum wage where we will get a share of welfare from growth. However, we have not been able to achieve this so far. We could not find a minimum wage where the minimum wage earner would smile and increase the level of his-her welfare. We will have another meeting, but at first we thought we would finish early. We wanted to make evaluation calculations for 2022, but in my opinion, it has become clear that there is no such position.”