Turkey to hire 110,000 new public servants in 2018, says PM

ANKARA/KİLİS

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Dec. 24 that Turkey would employ an additional 110,000 public servants in 2018 including teachers, medical and religious personnel.

Speaking in the southern border town of Kilis, Yıldırım said that among the total, the government would hire an extra 36,000 medical personnel and 20,000 teachers.

The planned number was 74,000, the Finance Minister had said back in September.

“We will hire 74,000 public servants in 2018,” Finance Minister Naci Ağbal had said at a meeting to announce the government’s medium-term economic program.

Yıldırım, however, said on Dec. 24 that the government would hire an additional 36,000 medical personnel, 20,000 teachers and 10,900 to the Higher Education Credit and Dormitories Institution, while 15,000 to the Justice Ministry’s prison guarding section and 9,500 to the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet).

He also noted that 2,000 professionals would be employed by the Family and Social Policies Ministry and 4,000 academics and 7,000 medical staff by universities.

“In accordance with the needs of other administrative units, we will also hire an additional 6,000 personnel. Thus, we will hire 110,000 public servants in 2018,” Yıldırım said.

According to a new decree released on Dec. 24, thousands of subcontracted workers will be able to apply as permanent workers for the position they are currently employed in if they have been working as of Dec. 4.

They will then take written and/or oral exams to determine their qualifications. Successful candidates will sign a permanent labor contract within the next 90 days.

Some 450,000 Turkish subcontracted workers in the public sector will be offered permanent staff positions as part of the new plan, Labor Minister Jülide Sarıeroğlu announced on Dec. 24.

She added that intermediaries would be abolished for some 400,000 subcontracted workers at municipalities.

It was unclear whether the number of planned public servants announced by Yıldırım would cover some of these subcontracted workers.