'A hub of labor violations': İstanbul shipyard workers climb crane protesting unpaid wages
Fourteen workers laid off from Kuzey Star Shipyard in İstanbul’s Tuzla district have been protesting since Mar 5 over unpaid wages and benefits. Four of the dismissed workers escalated their protest by climbing a tower crane at the shipyard yesterday, vowing not to come down until they receive their dues.
“We’re not just talking about having money in our pockets—our debts are piling up,” said İsa Balıkçı, one of the protesting workers. “When a person has to go home to their family with their head down, unable to look their children in the eye, they might as well be dead. That’s how we feel now.”
Balıkçı said that their struggle has left them with no other option. “We are in the middle of Ramadan, and the holiday is approaching. Forget about having money in our pockets; we’re drowning in debt. They have made us suffer like this for months," he said.
“We didn’t want to resort to this, but we had no other choice. Any father in Turkey would do anything for his children, and we were left with no alternative. This is our ninth day of protest. We kept going to the shipyard’s gates, but no one would listen to us. At one point, they made a promise, saying, ‘We’ll take care of it, we’re sorry.’ But we soon realized it was all lies. They deceived us.
“We won’t be fooled anymore. Now that we’re up here, we’re not coming down until we get what we’re owed. We can’t return to our children empty-handed. We refuse to sit at an empty table during Ramadan.”
Serkan Aksakal, another worker who climbed the crane, also described the protest as their last resort.
“We were laid off, and now we don’t even have money to buy a loaf of bread,” he said. “It’s not just us, our colleagues are in the same situation. On top of that, our rightful earnings were taken from us. We haven’t been paid our severance, our vacation pay, or our salaries. So we turned to our union for help.”
“There are four of us up here, and 12 more of our colleagues down below supporting us. Others have also come to show solidarity. We are here, and we are determined. We will not leave this crane until we get our money. No force can remove us from here unless we are paid.”
Months of unpaid wages
Kuzey Star Shipyard dismissed workers by claiming there was no more work available. However, the company had already failed to pay wages since December and has made new hirings since then, according to Aksakal.
“The claim that there’s no work is completely fabricated by the employers,” he said. “Whether there is work or not depends entirely on the subcontractor’s decision. For example, there is work inside the shipyard, but the subcontractor can automatically dismiss workers by claiming that the client hasn’t made a request. Over the past eight days of our protest, more than 500 new workers have been hired.”
“Unfortunately, no one seems to care about this. We work long hours under extremely difficult conditions,” he added. “We will not leave the shipyard until we receive what we are owed. My colleagues, our union, and I will stand our ground until we get our rights.”
Tuzla shipyards: A hub of labor violations
The dismissed workers are members of the Shipbuilding, Maritime Transportation, Warehousing, and Dockworkers Union (Limter-İş), affiliated with the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK). Hakkı Demiral, general secretary of Limter-İş, highlighted the widespread labor rights violations in Tuzla’s shipyards, describing the area as a “lawless zone.”
“When people think of Tuzla’s shipyards, the first thing that comes to mind is the lack of regulations,” he said.
According to Demiral, 25,000 workers are employed in the area, with 24,000 of them working under subcontractors. “The real wages of 24,000 subcontracted workers are not properly declared for social security purposes. Their salaries are deliberately misreported under the watch of the government and labor inspectors."
“For instance, a worker earning 60,000 liras is officially recorded as earning only 20,000–22,000 liras, with social security contributions based on the lower amount. Part of the salary is deposited in the bank, while the rest is paid in cash. This system directly impacts workers’ severance pay, pensions, and other entitlements because compensation and retirement benefits are calculated based on declared wages.
“We are constantly fighting against this injustice, but the arbitrary practices of the subcontracting system have pushed workers to their limits."
'Authorities turn a blind eye'
Demiral also revealed that on the fourth day of their protest, workers received their official minimum-wage salaries via bank transfers. However, the remaining unpaid wages, which were previously given to them in cash, were only transferred on the seventh day from a different account.
He stated that union lawyers calculated the workers’ total dues and sent the figures to the company. However, the employer has refused to pay severance and notice compensations to prevent setting a precedent for other workers.
Claiming that the Labor Ministry is aware of these unlawful practices, Demiral said, “These payments made to workers' accounts are completely irregular. The money is disguised as ‘loan repayments’ or ‘cash advances’ when, in reality, it is their rightful salary. If the Ministry of Labor conducted a proper inspection and simply asked any worker on the street, ‘How much do you earn?’ they would get the truth. A worker would say, ‘I make 60,000 lira, but my social security is based on minimum wage.’
"This system is no secret. The government, the Labor Ministry, and the inspectors all see it, yet they turn a blind eye.”
Dsmissed workers labeled as 'resigned’
Limter-İş lawyer Önder Özgür said employers falsely report laid-off workers as having resigned in official records.
“In Turkey, it is the employer who submits the termination notice to the Social Security Institution (SGK). The worker has no say in it,” Özgür explained.
“The law gives employers a lot of freedom in this regard, so they can choose any termination code they want. However, if a worker files a lawsuit, this code can be changed. The same thing happened to the workers at Kuzey Star Shipyard. Even though none of them resigned, they were listed under ‘Code 03’, termination by the worker. This is a common practice in the shipyard industry.” (AD/VK)