TÜRK-İŞ President Atalay: "We Will Not Participate in the Minimum Wage Commission Again"

The President of TÜRK-İŞ Confederation, Ergün Atalay, stated that they will not participate in the minimum wage commission again unless a fair adjustment is made from now on. After the minimum wage was determined for the year 2025, TÜRK-İŞ President Atalay made a statement.

Some key points from Ergün Atalay's speech:

"In this second meeting, almost all members of the commission were minimum wage earners. Last term, we had four colleagues from Çorum, Gerede, Adana, and Ankara. This time, we have a chef, a hairdresser, a subcontracted worker, and a journalist. These friends conducted a study within a month with the experts of TÜRK-İŞ regarding what the minimum wage is, how many meetings there have been, who it concerns, and what topics we should work on. The next friends attended the meetings on December 10, 16, and 19. The meetings were chaired by our Vice President, Ramazan Ağar. We said that this decision should be made by the friends in the commission who live on minimum wage. Five years ago, we weren't discussing the minimum wage at this level, but for the past five years, the minimum wage has become a living wage. In the past, the minimum wage was 20% or 30% of income, but now half of the country works for minimum wage. Therefore, it was important for the country and for us. For this reason, we said that those who earn this wage should be at the table. Let them decide. Last week, we held a meeting in this hall with those who were present in the commission. We included their demands in an envelope and announced them publicly. TÜRK-İŞ requested a minimum wage of 29,583 TL. It was mentioned that the next meeting would be on Friday or Thursday, but the meeting took place last night. In all three meetings, the parties did not present a figure to us. As a result, we decided and shared our number with you. From this point on, we will not participate in the minimum wage commission again unless a fair adjustment is made."