Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Emin Ay, together with council members, visited 75 workers who are members of the Construction and Road Workers’ Union (Yapı Yol-İş) and have been protesting for eight days outside the Diyarbakır City Hospital construction site over their working conditions and employment rights.

Workers explain the problems they face

Meeting with the workers, Co-Mayors Bucak and Ay and those accompanying them listened to the problems and demands raised by the workers. The workers said they had been subjected to pressure, threats and insults for exercising their trade union rights and were facing threats of dismissal.

The workers also protested against unjustified wage deductions and said their Social Security Institution (SGK) contributions were not being paid based on their actual wages. They also demanded that their legal rights concerning Sunday work, overtime pay for working more than 45 hours a week, occupational safety, notice pay and travel allowances be recognised.

Co-Mayor Bucak: “We do not accept violations of workers’ rights”

Listening to the workers’ demands and expressing her solidarity with them, Co-Mayor Serra Bucak stressed that workers everywhere have a fundamental right to receive fair compensation for the work they do and said:

“A hospital construction project that has taken this long can of course have its problems and difficulties. We are seeing these as a city. But we absolutely cannot accept these problems being taken out on workers or the project being run by denying workers their rights. As you can see, our fellow workers are here both to ensure that they can work safely on this enormous construction site and to defend their right to a decent life, decent working conditions and fair overtime pay.”

Criticising the subcontracting system, Co-Mayor Bucak stressed that while major companies were making new investments, workers were having to fight to make ends meet on meagre wages. She said:

“While major companies are making new investments, workers are having to fight for their meagre wages. Who will defend the rights of these workers? Trade unions will, of course; civil society will, local authorities will and political parties will.”

Call to the Ministry

Co-Mayor Bucak said that workers faced threats of dismissal when they raised their trade union demands and called for immediate action to protect workers’ rights, particularly their right to organise in trade unions, as well as their wages, overtime entitlements and occupational safety.

Calling on the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and labour inspectors to take action, Co-Mayor Bucak said the demands put forward by the workers were not unreasonable and added:

“As Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality and as the DEM Party, we want to make it clear that we stand with them. We come from a tradition that has supported the trade union struggle for 26 years. If an opportunity for negotiations is offered, we, as the municipal administrations and our party, are ready to play a role.”

Co-Mayor Ay: “Silence makes us complicit in exploitation”

Co-Mayor Emin Ay said the situation faced by the City Hospital workers was a serious injustice and stated:

“The company, which relies on the support of those in power, is treating workers who demand their rights with great hostility and dismissing them. This protest is both valuable and legitimate. If there is coercion and exploitation somewhere, people should not remain silent. Silence makes us complicit in exploitation. The objection here is an objection to exploitation. If this hospital has been built in this city, it has been built through the labour of workers. There is labour and there is sweat behind it. As local authorities, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the workers. Our call to the governing party is this: rather than standing with capital, it should take workers’ demands into account fairly and protect all of their rights.”