Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil and his Turkish counterpart, Minister of Labour and Social Security, Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan.
On 2 December, Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil welcomed his Turkish counterpart, Minister of Labour and Social Security Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan, to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
The two ministers discussed the changes in the world of work, the 60th anniversary of the German-Turkish social security agreement and the good cooperation between their countries in the G20. Federal Minister Heil and Minister of Labour and Social Security Işıkhan also opened this year's meeting of the German-Turkish Interministerial Working Group and emphasized that cooperation in the field of labour and social affairs is an important pillar of the bilateral relations between the two countries.
The programme for the working group meeting included a visit to the ESF model project ‘Rat geben - Ja zur Ausbildung!’ (‘Providing advice - Yes to training!’). The programme aims to help young people, in particular those with a migration background, to overcome barriers to accessing vocational training. The Turkish guests appreciated the exchange of ideas with the project staff, who have a migration background themselves and therefore have good access to (post-)migrant communities.
The working group focused on the topics of platform work, the German-Turkish social security agreement, securing the supply of skilled labour and the training opportunities and training motivation of young Turkish people in Germany. The exchange on platform work proved to be particularly valuable. The Turkish side emphasised the importance of adopting new forms of work and thus accepting the wishes of many young people arguing that it was the task of the labour ministries to find solutions for issues related to working conditions and social security.
In addition to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Employment Agency, German Statutory Accident Insurance, Deutsche Rentenversicherung, the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) and the Turkish Social Security Institution (SGK) also took part in the German-Turkish Interministerial Working Group.
The previous meeting of the German-Turkish Interministerial Working Group took place in Izmir in 2014. While there has been close cooperation at the institutional level in recent years, this year's meeting in Berlin is intended to reinvigorate cooperation between the labour ministries.