İSTANBUL -  ESP Co-Chair Sahin Tumuklu called on unions and labor organizations to organize a strike on May 1st, demanding their “right to paid leave” against the legal change that allowed employers to give the employees unpaid time off.

 

With the coronovirus (Kovid-19) epidemic, thousands of workers were laid off under the pretext of stopping or slowing down production and services in many sectors. The law proposal, which includes economic measures against the epidemic on the negativities caused by this situation was discussed and adopted at the General Assembly of the Parliament recently.

 

Although the layoffs were banned for 3 months with the Law on “Reducing the Effects of the Epidemic on Economic and Social Life”, the obstacles in front of the employers to give unpaid live to the workers were eliminated. With the law, it was decided to give 39 TL 24 kurus cash support to the workers who were given unpaid leave from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (İSF) daily.

 

Saying that workers do not need such laws for their right to life, Co-Chair of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) Şahin Tümüklü noted that a real strike is needed for the right to life. Tümüklü said: "If we do not go on strike, the workers have no chance of gaining neither the right to life nor the right to paid leave in the face of the bourgeoisie and its fascist state. May day is coming.  This May Day is a very important threshold for organizing a strike for paid leave and the right to live on paid leave."