Vedat Bilgin, Minister of Labor and Social Security, spoke at the Memur-Sen General Assembly, which was held at the Hacı Bayram Veli University Congress and Culture Center and attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Recalling the actions taken about 100 years ago to shorten the working time of the workers, Bilgin said, “The first action was to reduce the working time to 10 hours in Chicago. But then the protests grew. It spread around the world and demands for 8 hours arose. Again, it is close to 100 years or 100 hours. A little more than a year, working hours in various countries of the world were reduced to 8 hours with the International Labor Organization. said.
Stating that he is living in another age now, Bilgin reminded that the period when there was a demand for 8 hours was the period when the industrial age began.
Bilgin continued:
“Now the question is, 100 years ago, how much did the workers produce in 1 hour, how much product did the workers produce in 1 hour, how much did they produce in 1 hour, how much do they produce in 1 hour today? With this technological change, this technological revolution that intervened, it is likely that workers, laborers, those working in the service sector The value produced by the workers, the product they produce, the service they produce have increased exponentially. For this, the first thing that needs to be discussed today, on these May Days, is that working hours still remain around the 8 hours demanded at the beginning of the industrial age? Of course, obviously not.
Therefore, we Turks have to modernize our working life and rearrange the working hours under more humane conditions, taking into account the increase in the productivity of the labor unit. A pilot study was conducted in England and it was implemented for 6 hours. After 6 hours, a 5 hour trial is made as this is also insufficient. These studies are carried out in many parts of the world, especially by academics.”
