Health workers not allowed to hold meeting, eight detained

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The police did not allow the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG) to hold a press meeting in front of a hospital in the capital Ankara and detained eight members of the group.

İSİG members gathered in front of the Ankara University Faculty of Medicine İbni Sina (Avicenna) Hospital at around 12.30 p.m. but were not allowed to make a statement about their monthly Covid-19 report.

Health workers are also among the detained, according to the İSİG.

"As we have insistently stated since the first days of the outbreak, it has step by step transformed into a working class disease with the policies that have been carried out in this period," said the İSİG statement.

The government's policies "protected the capital owners" and "pushed workers to her immunity," said the İSİG.

Health workers have "burned out" both physically and psychologically, the İSİG said, adding that the additional payments to health workers were not being made fairly.

It listed the following demands:

Covid-19 should be recognized as a professional disease for health workers and a work accident for workers in other sectors.

Work safety measures should be taken in all areas of workplaces, especially production areas.

Workers above a certain age and have a chronic disease must be put on paid-administrative leave.

Layoffs should be banned and workers should be paid in full.

Workers should be tested for Covid-19 and production should be suspended in workplaces where cases increase.

Working hours for those who work from home should be rearranged and their expenditures for work should be met. (AÖ/VK)