The north’s minimum wage was on Friday set at a gross figure of 60,618TL (€1,191) per month after its minimum wage determination commission rejected an appeal lodged by trade unions to raise it further following a provisional announcement last week.

As such, people living in the north will from this month be paid 60,618TL, which translates to a net figure of 52,738TL (€1,036).

The new minimum wage marks an 18 per cent increase on the previous minimum wage, in force since July last year, which was set at a gross figure of 51,220TL and a net figure of 44,546TL.

At the time, that minimum wage was worth a gross amount of €1,076 and a net amount of €936, but given that the Turkish lira has lost value since July, those amounts have fallen to €1,006 and €875 respectively.

Friday’s decision sees the north’s minimum wage once again leapfrog that of the Republic of Cyprus, which increased its own minimum wage to a gross figure of €1,088 at the beginning of this month, with that amount working out to a net figure of €963.

The net minimum wage is higher than that of all but five European Union member states, with only Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, and France having higher minimum wages. Sixth placed Spain’s net minimum wage is €1,035 – a single euro per month lower than that of the north.

Meanwhile, the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel announced that Turkish Cypriots earning the minimum wage in the north would be given an extra 12,000TL (€236) by the north’s provident fund department.

That payment is to be made in two instalments of 6,000TL (€118) each in February and March, with those wishing to apply for it given until February 28 to do so.

However, the application website crashed on Friday afternoon.

Later on Friday, ‘labour minister’ Oguzhan Hasipoglu stressed that the announced increase is a positive for workers, despite trade unions’ demands for it to be increased further, saying that if the extra payment is taken into account, workers earning the minimum wage will earn almost 23 per cent more this month than they did last month.

The unions had demanded an increase of just shy of 22 per cent, which, if implemented, would have taken the minimum wage up to around 62,500TL (€1,228).

“Perhaps for the first time, the government has provided a bigger increase than what the unions wanted,” he said.

However, Cyprus Turkish trade unions’ federation (Hur-Is) leader Ahmet Serdaroglu was less than impressed, saying that Friday’s meeting was “a set up because we could not satisfy the rich”.

“The worker is being condemned to hunger … How will a worker who earns 58,000TL in January and 58,000TL in February survive under these conditions?” he asked, before promising that workers will “disrupt this game at the ballot box”, with legislative elections expected to take place in the north at some point this year.