Vedat Bilgin, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, participated in the “6th Vocational Training Market" at the Consulate General of Türkiye in Cologne, within the scope of his contacts in Germany.

Bilgin visited the desks of the institutions and organizations there and met with Karl-Josef Laumann, the Minister of Labour of North Rhine-Westphalia (KRV). During the meeting, Laumann stated that vocational training opportunities and consequently chances of finding a suitable vocational training place of their preferences have increased in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in recent years, adding that success in employment can only be achieved if there are workplaces offering vocational training opportunities to young people and young people who are eager to do these jobs.

Putting forth that the studies carried out by the Consulate General in Cologne in the field of vocational training shed light on young people, Laumann drew attention to the importance of the contributions of families to the vocational trainings.

Making a statement to journalists after the meeting, Minister Bilgin said "We are analysing each and every file fastidiously and addressing the problems that are on the agenda of our Ministry. One of these is related to the contract personnel working in the public sector- a problem that concerns about 516.000 people. We are about to come to an end with this case. We have technically finished the work and have arrived at the decision stage. Apart from that, there is a problem of temporary workers. We will also solve this problem. There is also an issue with subcontracted workers. Approximately 1 million subcontracted workers were permanently employed. The number of people who couldn't benefit from this change was 95.000 at that time and the number may have changed today. They problem is related to their posts but we are continuing to work on this," he said.

Bilgin shared the following information about the work conducted concerning the people of delayed pension age (EYT):

"We are working on the case in which people have a problem getting retired due to delayed pension age. We plan to bring it up to the parliament in December as the work is still going on, but we have reached a critical stage. I shared with the public that this problem will have been solved and submitted to the Turkish Parliament in December. Of course, there is a reform that was put in place in 1999 and the problem is valid for those who had started working before that reform was introduced. There are 3 conditions for retirement: the total number of working days, length of service and age. It is necessary to have met all of them. After the law was enacted, these conditions were determined. Those who did not meet the age requirement out of these, in the period before the law was passed are raising this issue. We will offer the solution of that problem and submit it for the approval of the Parliament in December."

Referring to the minimum wage, Bilgin said, "We enacted the highest minimum wage in the history of the Republic of Türkiye at the end of last year and the adopted amount started to be paid as of the new year. We made a 50% increase and then we made a re-arrangement in July. In mathematical terms, this equals to an increase of over 80%, and around 95% cumulatively. There is high inflation! However, steps are taken to mitigate its detrimental effects and to reduce the impact of the minimum wage. Taking these into account, we will re-set the minimum wage at the end of the year, taking into account inflation and at a level that will protect the workers of society. No one should worry about that. The basic characteristic of Türkiye is that it is a social state. It is the state that safeguards its employees and workers through measures it takes," he said.