Put on unpaid leave, workers back to work after protests

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Put on unpaid leave by Sinbo, a company producing small home appliances in İstanbul, on September 11, 2020, six workers were back to work as of yesterday (December 21) following their protests.

The workers previously set up tents in front of the factory in Haramidere. Indicating that they had been put on unpaid leave due to their organizational activities at the All Automobile and Metal Workers' Union (TOMİS), the workers have ended their resistance as they have been reinstated.

In the wake of this decision following an unpaid leave for three months, the workers started working again yesterday.

Making a statement for the press after work, the workers have noted that they were put on unpaid leave because they raised their voices against the bad working conditions at the factory amid the pandemic.

Reading out the press statement, union member Ömer Kocaman, who was previously dismissed from his job, has defined the attitude of the factory management as an attack. He has underlined that this move of the factory aimed to hinder the growing unionization and struggle for labor rights.

Saying that they turned their tents in front of the factory into a "resistance school", Kocaman has indicated that they held 11 classes in 31 days and tried to guide workers by reviewing together the historical experiences, current problems and struggle of the working class.

Ömer Kocaman has also reminded the public that three of the six workers put on unpaid leave by the factory were women. He has stressed that their resistance was also against the double exploitation, inequality, harassment, rape and mobbing that women are subjected to.

"The Ministry [of Family, Labor and Social Services] could not remain indifferent to our resistance and struggle that lasted for 31 days. It sent its inspectors to the factory and our fellow workers who were put on unpaid leave have started working again today by getting all receivables since the day when they were put on leave," Kocaman has added.

"As a result of our resistance and struggle, we have covered an important distance in the face of unpaid leave attack that forces millions of workers to bow down to slavery. We have made the Sinbo factory withdraw its decision of unpaid leave," he has concluded.  (HA/SD)