Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan spoke at the 'Digital Transformation in Working Life and Youth Seminar' organized by the Turkish Heavy Industry and Service Sector Public Employers' Union (TÜHİS) in Tuzla.
Minister Işıkhan stated that rapid technological change directly affects working life, and said that the perspective of digital transformation and just transition is among today's most important topics.
Noting that young people are the group that adapts fastest to this transformation, Işıkhan said that while digitalizing institutional services, they are also preparing the labor market for this process.
Işıkhan noted that within the scope of the Ministry's digitalization efforts, they provide services to citizens with 893 domestic applications, and listed that they carry out health service tracking with MEDULA, prevention of unregistered employment with KADİM PERİ, convenience for retirees with Emektar and MOSSİP, and occupational health and safety processes with İSG KATİP in the digital environment.
Emphasizing that the Ministry's applications are among the most used services in the e-Government system, Işıkhan announced that SGK applications, which were visited 1 billion 600 million times in 2025 and 758 million 197 thousand 668 times in the first 6 months of 2026, reached a usage rate of 9.8 percent among all e-Government services.
Explaining that İŞKUR brings together job seekers and employers through e-branch and mobile applications, and that they match the right talent with the right job thanks to the AI-supported matching system, Minister Işıkhan said, 'In the near future, the architects of the digital ecosystem will be young people.'
Stating that they address digital transformation not only with its economic but also social dimensions, Işıkhan said that with a just transition approach, they strengthen the transition processes from education to employment, develop vocational skills, and implement inclusive employment policies.
Touching on TÜHİS's role in public employer unionism, the Minister reported that the union successfully conducts 383 collective labor agreements covering 330 members and approximately 600 thousand public workers. He also noted that 33 of the 87 TÜHİS member universities have hospitals, and that collective bargaining processes are carried out for workers in these hospitals, and that 120 separate collective labor agreements have been concluded so far.
Işıkhan emphasized that with the participation of non-TÜHİS member universities in this structure, implementation unity will be strengthened and contribution will be made to labor peace.
Minister Işıkhan concluded his words as follows: 'No matter how much working methods and systems change, the value placed on labor, rights, justice, and sweat will not change. We will continue to support all production that centers on labor and social justice. We will work to integrate the opportunities of the new age into every field, especially working life.'
TÜHİS Secretary General Mehmet Baş and Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TİSK) Board Chairman Özgür Burak Akkol also attended the seminar and made speeches.
