The number of unregistered workers surged in April 2010 over the previous year, reaching almost 10 million, according to a recent report by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, or DİSK.
The report describes the current situation as “alarming” and says the ruling government has been “rather weak” in fighting the rising levels of unregistered employment.
According to recent figures by the Turkish Statistical Institute, the unemployment rate dropped 2.9 percentage points in April, to 12 percent. Yet the DİSK report claims these figures are overshadowed by the soaring rates of unregistered employment.
DİSK estimates the number of unemployed people reached 3 million in 2009, an increase of 32 percent over the 2008 estimate of 2.3 million.
“Rather than lifting the walls preventing the unionization of labor, the government keeps [trusting] the private sector to fight unregistered employment,” DİSK wrote in its report. “The government harms the fight against unregistered employment by thinking that cutting taxes and decreasing production costs will lead employers to register their employees.”
In order to fight unregistered employment, the report called for unionization of labor, close supervision and enforcement of sanctions. “Unregistered employment has been a bleeding wound in this country that must be healed urgently,” it said, citing statistics that showed the number of unregistered employees rose to 9.7 million in April, up from 8.8 million a year previously.
“Everyone deserves a job and the country cannot get out of the economic crisis by hiring unregistered employees for temporary jobs with no guarantee,” DİSK wrote.
Work without a future
According to the report, the number of unregistered temporary employees is also quite high. “The number of those who work at temporary jobs has risen to 1.5 million, up from 1.2 million, But this also shows that there are around 300,000 people more that are concerned about their future in general,” it said, citing working at temporary jobs with no social security as a major factor in future unemployment.
“Around 31 percent of the jobless, numbering at a million, consist of those who previously worked in temporary jobs,” DİSK wrote. “This year, with the global economic crisis, 124,000 people joined the ranks of the ‘chronically jobless,’ who have been looking for a job for longer than one year.”
Official data excludes those who have “given up” on looking for a job, the report said, claiming that this group amounts to an additional 2.2 million people.
The report also pointed out sharp differences in working hours compared with European countries. “While the average work week consists of between 35 and 40 hours in European Union countries, many employees in Turkey are asked to work more than 50 hours per week,” it said.
The confederation suggested that labor unions should have the authority to supervise the private sector. “All employees must have social security, working hours must be in accordance with EU standards and the inactive labor force of the country has to be reactivated through new areas of employment,” the report said.
