Kılıçdaroğlu pledges to raise lowest civil servant salary 2.5 times the minimum wage

ANKARA

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader and the presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has promised to raise the lowest civil servant salary to 2.5 times the minimum wage if he is elected.

“In 2012, the lowest civil servant salary was two and a half times the minimum wage. Currently, this rate has decreased to 1.4. That’s why as soon as I come to power, I will increase the lowest civil servant salary to two and a half times the minimum wage,” he said in a video message posted on his Twitter account.

The working hours of the police are 12-13 hours a day, 240-250 hours a month, said Kılıçdaroğlu, adding that “This is one of the reasons behind police suicides.”

The CHP leader also pledged to eliminate the distinctions such as contract teachers, paid teachers, and permanent teachers, also repeated his promise that all teachers will have permanent contracts.

In a separate video message on Twitter, the CHP leader criticized the government for using the defense industries of the country as a tool for the election campaign.

“They have turned the defense of the state, even its army, into election propaganda. They turned the army’s ship into an AK Party election bus. Why are you alienating people from their ship, their defense industry? This is our ship, our SİHA,” he said.

“Have you ever seen such propaganda in the past? Have you ever seen our century-old defense industry used like this?” he asked and said these fields are the “sacred, common concern” of all.

Kılıçdaroğlu refuted the ruling party officials’ claims that the opposition bloc will end social assistance and end the projects of defense industries such as drones.