HABER MERKEZİ -Constrcution worker Emre Karakoç said: "Unemployement of disease? Coronavirus is a possibility, unemployement is a certainty. If I lose my job I'll go hungry. Unemployement is the one that scares me when I compare the two. The employer is putting pressure on us for the work to be done instead of taking precautions.

 

Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın summarized the measures taken by the government against the coronavirus in a television program he attended the previous day, saying, "The country-wide curfew would have cost the economy much more." In this case, it was stated that the call "stay at home" is not particularly valid for workers. In the construction sector, which is the engine of the government's economic model, things continue unabated. Hasan Oğuz, a worker who lost his life a week after he told about the corona risk to Yeni Yaşam Newspaper, was also a construction worker.

 

We spoke to Emre Karakoç, a construction worker who told about the working conditions, health and security issues, overtime and wages in the coronavirus period. 

 

Stating that some workers stopped working and returned to their home country after the risk of epidemics increased, Karakoç said that the majority who are in need, unable to earn a living, have no support and have to work are on the construction sites. 

 

Karakoç, stating that the call to stay at home is an empty call, said: "They should tell us how to stay at home. Who will meet my needs? There is a two day curfew at weekends. They tell us to work for 5 days and what? The risk goes away in those 5 days? What happens is that we lose that 2 days worth of daily wage. I have been working in construction for 10 days. I don't have any savings I am working to stay alive. We could have stayed at home if we managed to save some money. But that is not possible with our wages."

 

Karakoç, stating that he uses 4 different public transportation to work, said: "We have to use masks in public transportation and we have to provide it ourselves. Our employers haven't meet any of our demands regarding the measures against coronavirus from day one."

 

Karakoç, pointing out that their daily wages are cut because they do not go to work in weekends, said: "Unemployement or disease? When they cut our wages, we go hungry. That is more scarier than the outbreak. Coronavirus is a possibility, unemployement is a certainty. If I lose my job I'll go hungry. That is not a possibility, that is a fact. Unemployement is the one that scares me when I compare the two. The employer is putting pressure on us for the work to be done instead of taking precautions."

 

Karakoç, adding that they too want to stay at home, said: "They should postone our bills, rents. They should provide food aid. We just want our basic needs to be met. That's how we can stay at home."

 

MA / Sedat Yılmaz