Parliamentary inquiry into unemployment in Turkey

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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26 main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) MPs have submitted a Parliamentary inquiry into unemployment in Turkey.

The MPs have stressed that there is a gap between the labor force statistics announced by the state agency Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and the ones announced by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK). The MPs of the main opposition party have requested that a Parliamentary inquiry be launched into real unemployment in the country.

İstanbul MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu, the first signatory of the inquiry, has stated, "Unemployment is gradually rising in Turkey during the pandemic and the TurkStat figures are far from giving the real numbers."

The inquiry of the MPs has also referred to the recent labor force statistics unveiled by the TurkStat and the DİSK for February. According to the TurkStat, the number of unemployed increased by 250 thousand people to 4 million 236 thousand people in a month. However, the DİSK, on the basis of TurkStat data, announced that broad unemployment hit 10 million people.

Against this background, 26 CHP MPs have submitted a Parliamentary inquiry as per the Article 98 of the Constitution and the Articles 104 and 105 of the Parliamentary bylaw and requested that "a Parliamentary inquiry be launched with the aim of ending arbitrary dismissals by amending the 'Labor Law', considering the gradually increasing unemployment rate during the pandemic; improving the conditions for benefiting from the unemployment insurance fund and the amounts paid and lifting the preconditions for benefiting from the unemployment insurance fund under COVID-19 conditions; preventing unemployment by determining effective and permanent measures." (RT/SD)