Government ends short-time work allowance payments amid height of pandemic

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Introduced in March 2020 to curb the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the short time work allowance ended as of March 31.

The short-time work allowance is the payment made to employees for periods of time that they don't work in cases where the working hours are reduced or work is completely stopped.

The decision came amid a new spike in coronavirus cases, because of which the measures have been tightened, including

Employees will receive the allowance for the last time on April 5.

After the end of the short time work allowance, employers will either switch their employees to full-time work or put them on unpaid leave, in which case employees will be paid an unpaid leave allowance of 1,324 lira (164 USD).

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 3.7 million employees have been paid a total of 27.7 billion lira (~3.44 billion USD) of short-time work allowance from the Unemployment Insurance Fund, according to Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) figures.

In February, 1.3 million people were paid short-time work allowance and 751,000 were paid unpaid leave allowance, according to the İŞKUR.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on March 29 that the short time work allowance would be replaced with the "normalization support." Accordingly, the government will undertake insurance premiums of restaurant and cafe employees and will make a monthly financial aid of 1,500 lira (185 USD) per person.

"Imposing unpaid leaves"

The chair of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), Arzu Çerkezoğlu, said that there is still 98.2 billion lira (12.1 billion USD) in the Unemployment Insurance Fund and this amount of money is enough to continue the short time work allowance payments for at least a year.

"The problem is with the political and class choices," she said. "What needs to end is not the short time work allowance but the imposition of unpaid leaves."

With the new decision, employees will be imposed unpaid leaves, she said.

The chair of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, said that the short time work allowance needs to be maintained until companies return to normal working order.

Tax expert Ozan Bingöl said, "What was extended today was the stoppage support applied on interest rate income. What was not extended today was the support for employees, the short time work allowance. Policies are an expression of the government's mentality."

Faik Öztrak, the spokesperson of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said, "The number of cases in the pandemic has reached the highest level so far. While restrictions were increased, the short-time work allowance has not been extended. What will happen to our 1.3 million citizens who benefit from the short work allowance?" (HA/VK)