Temporary forest workers, who are at the forefront of forest fires that have been going on for days, are struggling with both the flames and working conditions. While the lack of personnel in the forestry sector leads to weakening the effectiveness of the fight against fires, it also puts the lives of temporary forest workers in danger.
A fierce struggle is being waged in order to control the forest fires that have taken the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of our country under control. Forest workers, who are trying to prevent the forests from turning into ashes by sacrificing their lives, are at the forefront of this struggle. During the ongoing fires, 12 forest workers were injured and taken to hospitals. 2 forest workers lost their lives. Although they are described as 'martyrs' in condolence messages, the families of forest workers, who were not legally defined as martyrs of duty, were deprived of all rights and faced great grievances.
FOREST WORKERS TRYING TO SURVIVE SPIRITUALLY AND BODY
The forest workers' problem does not end there. In particular, the employment of personnel in the forest sector not only hinders the effective fight against forest fires, but also puts the lives of forest workers in danger. The teams, who cannot rest due to the lack of personnel, try both to fight the flames and to survive both spiritually and physically.
TEMPORARY WORKERS MOBBED
Another problem of forest workers is their employment as temporary workers. This situation causes the deterioration of the working peace between permanent and temporary workers, especially in times of disaster and crisis. These situations, which cause the lower and upper relations to turn into imposition, become mobbing for forest workers.
ONE WORKER HAS TO DO THE JOB OF FIVE WORKERS
The most striking example of this is experienced in water sprinklers. The sprinkler, which is an important tool in the fight against forest fires, has a staff capacity of 5+1 under normal conditions. However, due to the lack of personnel, two forestry workers are provided for one landfill. When this is the case, each worker in the vehicle has to do the work of five workers at the same time. While this situation increases the workload of the worker and weakens his effectiveness in the fight against flames, on the other hand, it also costs their lives, as in the examples in Manavgat.
THE MINISTRY DOESN'T GIVE UP ON SUBCONTRACTOR
As temporary forest workers continue to fight the flames under harsh working conditions, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry continues to insist on a temporary and subcontracted employment model. More than 8,000 forest workers are temporarily employed under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. While those workers have been waiting for the news of the staff to be announced by the Ministry for years, the Ministry has been recruiting subcontracted workers who still work in the forest for 3-month and 6-month periods.