Five thousand businesses fail due to Covid-19
FIVE thousand businesses have gone bust and 50,000 people working in the private sector have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic, a union leader has claimed.
The figures were given out by Güven Bengihan during a speech at the annual general meeting of the Cyprus Turkish Civil Servants Trade Union (Ktams).
Union and political party representatives, as well as trade unionists and delegates from Turkey and South Cyprus, attended the meeting.
Stating that in the last three years there have been “extraordinary developments both in the world and in the country”, Mr Bengihan said: “The Covid19 pandemic period and the depreciation of the Turkish Lira (TL) against foreign currency have caused both economic and social crises in the country. Due to these crises, non-unionised private sector employees were the victims and workers paid the price.”
Mr Bengihan criticised the government, arguing that the country had been “plunged into chaos due to incorrect economic policies and pro-capitalist political decisions” during the pandemic.
“While President Ersin Tatar was prime minister . . . when it was necessary to take measures to protect the purchasing power of the people and workers and to make basic consumer goods cheaper during this period, instead he acted as an enemy of the people by raising the price of everything and leaving them in poverty.”
Mr Bengihan expressed that during the pandemic it was said “there are no resources” to help people struggling to get by.
“But then the country’s scarce resources were distributed to some procapitalist segments” while private sector workers and unemployed people were “left to starve” with Covid support payments of 1,500TL.
“During the pandemic, 5,000 workplaces closed and 50,000 private sector workers were left unemployed,” he continued.
“With only 1,500 TL, private sector workers and the unemployed were left to starve. While workers only received 1,500TL during this period, through a process of elimination they left 10,000 workers without this support.
“[However] the Finance Ministry has taken on the monthly [employer] social security contribution liability of 36 million TL for capitalists. During this period, this government has proven that it is both anti-worker and pro-capitalist.”
With its policy of “responsible unionism”, Mr Bengihan said that Ktams provided support to workers in need and the jobless during the pandemic.
“Through cooperation and solidarity, the union provided financial and moral support to both the people and workers with its own means during this period,” he said.
“Our union has taken on the responsibility that the government should have taken on. Collaborating with municipalities, it provided food aid and financial assistance to the unemployed in many organisations.”