Turkish Minister of Economy: We need to relieve burden of unemployment fund on employers

The AKP government continues making legal regulations favouring the employers
Friday, 02 June 2017 05:39

Turkish Minister of Economy, Nihat Zeybekci, argued on Thursday that new regulations about the unemployment fund should be made in order to relieve the employers.

The AKP government continues making legal regulations favouring the employers. It was recently discussed in the media that a new severance fund arrangement was on the agenda and the government is likely to link the fund to Turkish Wealth Fund (TWF). The recent statement of the Minister of Economy is likely to indicate that the unemployment insurance fund can also be added to this agenda. After stating that the real sector in Turkey has been experiencing rough times, he said that any regulations to solve the crisis should not put the burden on the employers. Zeybekci stated that “a new regulation should be made regarding the unemployment fund and we need to relieve the burden on employers”.

TWF was established upon the cabinet decision based on a decree in February and Turkey’s most important public institutions were transferred to the Turkish Wealth Fund (TWF). The direct consequences of these intentions are privatisation of state-owned corporations, an abolition of the security of public workers, increment of flexible employment implementations in the public sector, the release of the country’s strategic resources to the market, and transfer of the funds formed by the workers’ savings and efforts to the TWF pool.

So far transferring public institutions does not seem to be enough to resolve the chronic problems in the Turkish economy, so the government is likely to link all the existing funds to the TWF. The savings of the workers including the unemployment funds and severance funds are bound to the TWF.