Board decides 4 percent pay raise for Turkish public workers

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

A crowded group of public workers demonstrate against the government’s pay raise offer on May 24 in Mersin. DHA photo

The Public Workers’ Arbitration Board adjudicated the rates of payment increase for this year and the next at a meeting yesterday, which is a final decision because collective bargaining between the parties had failed earlier.

The board decided on a 4 percent rise in each of the first and second halves of this year, and 3 percent in each half of 2014, Anatolia news agency reported. Labor Minister Faruk Çelik had put forth an offer of a 3.5 percent raise for the first half of 2012 and 4 percent in the second half of the year, to be followed by a 3 percent raise for each half of 2013.

The three trade union confederations representing civil servants staged a one-day walkout on May 23 after collective bargaining between the unions and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security ended without reaching an agreement.

The board exists under the law to provide a solution and have the final say in cases when a labor dispute fails to be resolved in bargaining.

Members of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) began protesting the decision yesterday, according to daily Hürriyet. A group of 100 to 150 people gathered outside the building where the meeting between union representatives and the members of the board was being held. The board was continuing to discuss other demands on the part of the Confederation of Public Servants’ Trade Unions (Memur-Sen), the Turkish Public Workers’ Union (Kamu-Sen) and KESK, as the Daily News went to print.