Civil Servants' Trade Union (Memur-Sen) have staged a demonstration today to protest the latest pay raise offer made by the government.

The ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) government had proposed on Monday to increase the salaries of civil servants by 3 percent in each half of 2012. But the offer was rejected by trade union Memur-Sen. There are around 2.5 million civil servants in Turkey.

Memur-Sen President Ahmet Gündoðdu said the government's offer was "null and void" for them. “This is far lower than what we expected and it is not acceptable,” he said reporters.

Labor Minister Faruk Çelik told reporters on Monday, that the government has offered to increase the salaries of civil servants by a total 6 percent for this year. The minister said the wages could be increased by 2 percent in the first half of 2013 and by another 3 percent for the second half of the same year.

Parliament has recently amended the law governing civil servant rights, giving civil servants the right to bargain collectively.

Prior to the amendment to the law on collective bargaining by civil servants, civil servant unions used to meet with the government once a year for negotiations. But they did not have the legal right to strike or undertake a work slowdown if the government turned their demands for a wage hike down.

Memur-Sen demanded has demanded a 16 percent wage hike from the government in 2012 and 14 percent for 2013.

On 23 May it will be KESK workers to strike.