Melisa Ay
Minimum Wage Determination Commission will soon begin its meetings to determine the rate of increase. Shortly before the meetings, the Tripartite Consultative Council will convene today, hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. The meeting agenda is listed as ‘Exchange of views on the structure and functioning of the Determination Commission.’ The Council includes the Ministry of Labour on behalf of the government, the employers’ representative TİSK, and the workers’ trade union confederations DİSK, Türk-İş, and Hak-İş. Türk-İş, the sole representative of workers in the minimum wage determination, has announced that it will not sit at the commission table, and Hak-İş has also announced that it will not be present, despite not having the authority to do so. The Council, which will meet today, will present its views on the commission, to which DİSK was not invited. If there is no change in the commission’s structure, only the government and employers will be present at the minimum wage table.
Türk-İş’s decision to withdraw from the table has reopened the debate on the commission’s structure. Hak-İş General President Mahmut Arslan also called for a similar commission in Turkey, recalling that in Germany, the minimum wage is determined by an independent commission composed of worker and employer representatives.
On the other hand, it is known that employers also want to be included at the table. It is rumoured that the Ministry of Labour is preparing to expand the table, which is already wobbly before it has even been set up. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) has long wanted to have a say in wage determination. In the commissions affiliated with TOBB, capitalists constantly make statements that ‘labour costs are too high’. However, the expansion of employer representatives’ seats necessitates the same expansion on the worker side. There is a possibility that DİSK and Hak-İş will also sit at the expanded table.
Türk-İş’s statement painted a picture contrary to what the government, which has said ‘the workers have been heard’ until now, wants. According to information obtained by BirGün, it is being discussed that the government, which defends the commission as ‘democratic,’ may choose to expand the table instead of having a table without workers.
DEMANDS EXCEED THE TABLE
The table, whose sole method of determination is to ‘identify a wage increase in line with the target inflation rate that will satisfy employers and financial circles,’ was shaken even before it was set up. The wage increase agreed upon last year, following Türk-İş’s announcement that they had ‘walked away from the table,’ directly affects nearly half of the country, as workers have no say, and even the token demands of their representatives go unanswered. In a country where the minimum wage has become the standard in capital’s wage policy, condemning millions from every sector to hunger and misery, one of the most important demands is to prevent citizens from bearing the burden of the crisis.
The increasingly vocal demand for work with wages befitting human dignity has surpassed the table concept created under these conditions. Efforts to determine wage increases are stalling in a wage scale where ‘austerity’ policies are being pushed forward. Trade unions’ organisational identity is crucial to avoid being squeezed between the 16% inflation rate targeted for 2026 in the Medium-Term Programme (MTP) and the 20% rate indicated by financial circles. A minimal increase to the minimum wage is one of the fundamental areas of struggle for trade unions, which represent the will and voice of workers. Either the table will expand with the participation of other representatives, or a decision will be made this year from a table where there is no representative worker participation. Despite the expanding structure of the table, where symbolic agreements have been signed to date, real demands are rising outside the table, in the streets.
In a country where the main agenda in factories, workplaces, workshops and squares is the economic crisis, and where company turnover is increasing at rates exceeding official inflation despite the crisis, employers who are losing money can be left alone at the table with their ‘close friends’ in power. Opposing the alliance of the government and capital, whose every demand is accepted, is not a table with broad or narrow participation, but the will of the working class.
The workers’ demands for collective bargaining, financial and social rights, and a dignified, secure and fair working environment are rising above the bureaucratic tables set up in the capital and fuelling the fire of resistance in the streets. Citizens, whose purchasing power is eroding day by day, whose labour is being devalued and who are being pushed into poverty, are shouting their demand for a living wage in the squares and streets. Social demand is growing beyond the table. Workers, with the power they derive from production, are not holding back from fighting for their rights across the country.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Çözüm sokakta, masada değil, published in BirGün newspaper on October 21, 2025.
