DİSK President Arzu Çerkezoğlu reacted to the announced minimum wage. Çerkezoğlu said, “First of all, this figure was announced in the extraordinary conditions that Turkey has been through, that is, in a period of the greatest poverty, loss of income, high cost and work-related problems in Turkey’s history, without taking into account the fact that the minimum wage is the average wage. The worker and his family are condemned to poverty.”
Arzu Çerkezoğlu, Chairman of the Confederation of Turkish Revolutionary Trade Unions (DİSK), made evaluations on the announced minimum wage on Halk TV.
“MILLIONS OF WORKERS ARE PRISONED TO POVERTY”
Çerkezoğlu stated that, as there are many issues that concern millions in working life, once again, an issue such as the minimum wage, which is an issue of millions, was decided without the social dialogue mechanism being operated despite the workers, without the workers’ side, Çerkezoğlu said. Millions of workers and their families have been condemned to poverty without taking into account the fact that the minimum wage is an average wage, in these extraordinary conditions that Turkey has been through, in a period of the greatest impoverishment, loss of income, high cost and work-related problems.”
“WE WILL BE BELOW THE HUNGER LIMIT IN A FEW MONTHS”
Çerkezoğlu said, “If we consider that the hunger limit, which means only food expenditure for a family of 4 in Turkey, is 7,800 TL, this figure is a little above the hunger limit. Considering the high inflation process in Turkey, this figure will decrease even below the hunger limit in a few months, not many,” he said.
Çerkezoğlu also listed what needs to be done in the process of determining the minimum wage and said:
“While determining the minimum wage, where one of every two people lives, what needs to be done is to have a wage that a worker can live with with his family, to have a real living wage, to compensate for his loss in the face of real inflation, to get his share of the increase in national income from growth, and to have at least two people working in one house. At that time, there should have been a minimum wage that would allow income up to the poverty line to enter that house.
Setting a minimum wage that does not take into account the poverty line, which is approximately 25-26 thousand liras today, means clearly condemning millions of workers to poverty together with their families. Therefore, this figure is much lower than expected.
In fact, by announcing this figure, the president once again revealed the preferences of the political power that governs the country, leading to a new unlawfulness by ignoring the political power that governs the country, as well as the workers’ side.
