Mehmet Akif Cenkci, President of the Labor and Social Security Legislation Education and Research Association, related to the subject, "During the pandemic, many employers benefited from the Short Work allowance and paid some of the insurance premiums. Insurance premiums, which will affect the retirement of the employees, were not paid. Not only them, but also workers on unpaid leave will retire late," he said.
"Short Work Allowance", which was launched in March with the coronavirus pandemic, continues under the name of "Normalization Allowance". Millions of workers who are subjected to Short Work Allowance and unpaid leave are paid through İŞKUR.
How much will the salary of those who retired, and when retiring employees in Turkey, where the outstanding is now too late for workers who are subject to short-time work will retire emerged. We talked with Mehmet Akif Cenkci, the President of the Labor and Social Security Legislation Education and Research Association, about the short work allowance, the unpaid leave application and the social security rights of the workers.
WHAT IS SHORT WORK BENEFIT?
Mr. Mehmet Akif, what is "Short Work Allowance"? Is it a practice specific to the pandemic process? Can you tell us?
Short Work Allowance is not only an application specific to the pandemic process. In the past, short work practice was most commonly used in the 2008 crisis and in 2018-2019. During the pandemic period, the government initiated the "Short Work Allowance" to help employers who are experiencing financial difficulties out of this bottleneck. Short Term Working Grant; It can be applied in cases where the weekly working hours in the workplace are temporarily reduced by at least one-third due to general economic, sectoral, regional crisis or force majeure or in cases where the activity in the workplace is suspended completely or partially for at least four weeks without seeking continuity. This practice is an application that provides income support to the insured for the period they cannot work, provided that it does not exceed three months in the workplace.
How many people benefited from the Short Work Allowance during the pandemic process?
3 million 243 thousand workers in April, 3 million 282 thousand in May, 2 million 486 thousand in June and 1 million 710 thousand workers in July benefited from the Short Work Allowance. After the announcement of the normalization process, this practice continues under the name of "Normalization Support".
THE NUMBER IS WELL BELOW THE LIMIT OF HUNGER AND POVERTY
How do you evaluate the unpaid leave of workers?
While the unpaid leave depends on the will of the worker, with a legal regulation made due to the pandemic, this will was left to the employer unilaterally. This situation caused some problems against the worker. This practice, which was introduced temporarily at the beginning, was later opened to be extended until June 30, 2021. Workers who are subject to unpaid leave receive a monthly thousand 177 lira and 20 kuruş. This figure corresponds to 39.24 TL per day. Can you imagine? How can you live with this salary for more than a year? This figure is far below the minimum wage, hunger and poverty line.
LOSS OF RIGHTS ARE BIG
Have the insurance premiums of workers who received Short Work Allowance due to the pandemic been paid? Has there been a loss in workers' social security rights?
Workers experience a serious loss of rights due to partial or complete cessation of activity in the workplace or the employee being taken on unpaid leave. Short Work Allowance was provided to workers within the scope of short work. In addition, health services were used by paying general health insurance premiums. If the activity in the workplace is partially stopped, the insurance premium must be paid by the employer in the long term as long as the day the employee works. If the activity stopped completely, the worker was taken on unpaid leave. Only the general health insurance of these workers was paid by İŞKUR. Long-term insurance premium, which will affect retirement days, has not been paid.