‘Pandemic is not over, cutting off support for workers would be devastating’

* Photo: Ömer Ertuğrul / AA

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The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has submitted a motion, demanding that short-time working allowance, financial support for unpaid leave and lay off ban be extended till the end of 2021.

In the current situation, all these three practices which were introduced to curb the negative effects of the pandemic will end on June 30.

Submitting the motion to the Parliament, MPs Necdet İpekyüz, Garo Paylan, Serpil Kemalbay Pekgözegü and Erol Katırcıoğlu from the HDP Economy Commission have also recommended that the payments made as part of the short-time working allowance and financial support for unpaid leave should be not less than 100 TRY (~11.5 USD) a day.

Speaking to bianet about the motion, HDP Diyarbakır MP Garo Paylan underlines that the burning effects of the economic crisis and the pandemic are still raging and the state must keep supporting people for this reason. "Our citizens who have lost their jobs and daily bread with the outbreak of the pandemic have not yet taken back their jobs," underlines Paylan.

'It must be extended until new year'

Since the pandemic broke out one and a half years ago, Paylan notes, millions of people have still been able to earn their 'daily bread' thanks to the short-time working allowance, unpaid leave support and lay off ban. "Thanks to these supports, workers get some money, albeit a few pennies. It is too early to cut off these supports," Paylan says, briefly adding:

"Short-time working allowance and unpaid leave support are paid from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Lay off ban also functions thanks to this fund. Last April, the government decided to end these supports. Then - most probably because of the opposition's pressure and the increase in the number of cases - they brought these payments and bans back.

"Now, these supports will end on June 30. Our main argument is that it is too early for them to end. We are not even in the beginning of eliminating the destruction caused by the pandemic. We think that these payments and supports must remain in effect at least until the new year.

'Unemployment fund can subsidize it'

"The Unemployment Insurance Fund can easily subsidize this. The value of the fund is over 90 billion TRY now. In 2019, this amount was 131.5 billion TRY while it was 103 billion TRY at the end of 2020. In other words, in six months, the money used from the fund to support workers and employers was only 10 billion TRY. They have used 40 billion TRY from the fund so far and most of this money has been used as an incentive for employers.

"We can ensure that 10-15 billion more liras are spent to secure the workers. If a fund filled by the workers themselves is not to be mobilized for them now, then, when will it be done? The whole world has mobilized its resources during the pandemic. But we have not taken this step.

"We now need to mobilize this fund. Its raison d'etre is to support workers in their hard times and to secure them when they do not have their daily bread and jobs. As befits the name, it is the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Workers' fund must be used for workers' benefit.

Support not even as high as minimum wage

"If the lay off ban is lifted, the number of unemployed people will increase even more. The citizens who cannot return to work will starve. Moreover, not only will the lay off ban end at the end of this month, short-time working allowance and unpaid leave support will also be ended.

"We demand that both of these payments be extended until the end of the year and the daily amount be increased to 100 TRY a day and 3,000 TRY a month. The current unpaid leave support is around 1,400 TRY. As for the short-time working allowance, it is not even 2,000 lira. Both of them must be rearranged in such a way that the minimum daily payment will be 100 TRY."

Concluding his remarks, Garo Paylan emphasizes that if the short-time working allowance, unpaid leave support and lay off ban are not extended, it might lead people to have a social devastation. (HA/SD)