Turkish gov’t reveals deal with unions over pay raise for public servants

ANKARA

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Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Çelik said on Aug. 22 the government has reached an agreement with representatives of civil servant unions on a raise in public workers’ wages.

Upon a collective agreement between the government and the civil servants’ unions, a salary raise of some 6+5 percent has been granted for civil servants and retired civil servants for 2016 and 3+4 percent for 2017.

The lowest civil servant wage will be 1,919 Turkish Liras ($651) per month, while the average will be 2,551 liras ($865), said the minister.  

Around 2.3 million civil servants and 2 million retired civil servants had their eyes on the negotiations, which started on Aug. 3. 

The talks featured representatives from the Public Employer Delegation, the Civil Servants’ Trade Union (Memur-Sen), the Turkish Public Workers’ Labor Union (Kamu-Sen) and the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK). 

Memur-Sen, the authorized confederation in the talks, said the deal was good for civil servants, who will take raises in wages over inflation rates, in a press conference on Aug. 24. 

Two of the three labor unions which participated in the collective bargaining talks, however, slammed the deal, saying public servants’ rights were not realized.