During the epidemic, the looting of Unemployment Fund grew. The bosses were paid 3 times more from the fund than the workers. If the fund was used for workers, 8 thousand lira per month could be transferred to a worker.
A total of 6.5 billion TL was paid to 2.3 million workers who were taken on unpaid leave during the epidemic from the "Unemployment Insurance Fund" (ISF), which was created by cuts from workers' wages. From the same fund, 18 billion TL was transferred to the bosses under the name of support and incentive payment in 2020.
The report was published by DİSK-AR, a trade union research group, and titled "Unemployment Insurance Fund in Covid-19 Period: The Fund that cannot be a Solution for the Unemployed and the Employee". It reveals striking data.
In 2020, 27.4 billion TL furlough allowance and 6.5 billion TL wage support allowance were provided to workers from the Fund. As of December 31, 2020, these payments reached nearly 5.8 million workers, including 3.58 million people getting furlough payments and 2.2 million people cash wage support.
There was a decrease in the amount of unemployment payments among the Fund expense items due to the ban on dismissals. 10 billion TL unemployment payments made in 2019 was down to 8.3 billion TL in 2020.
MASSIVE SUPPORT TO THE BOSS
Great support from the Fund continued to be provided to employers during the epidemic. Employers' contribution to the fund was 11 billion TL in 2020, and they received more than 18 billion in support and incentive payments, despite the fact that the fund was not set up for them. While the ratio of employer incentives to employer premium payments was 145.6 percent in 2019, this rate increased to 167.2 percent in 2020.
EACH WORKER COULD HAVE GOT 5.000 TL MORE IF THE FUND WAS USED FOR WORKERS
Bosses received three times more support from the unemployment fund than the workers during the pandemic: workers received 2.852 lira in wage support scheme. If the fund was used solely for the workers, and not for the bosses payment per worker could have reach just over 5 thousand lira.
Three times the cash wage support made to the workers was paid to the bosses as support and incentive payments. In the Kovid-19 period, if the unemployment insurance fund was used for workers, not for support to employers, the total cash wage support provided to workers during the epidemic was not 2 thousand 852 TL per worker; 5 thousand 041 TL more, 7 thousand 893 TL would be. Thus, the workers would be able to receive cash wage support, not 1168 TL per month, but two or three times this amount. (EVRENSEL DAILY)
Aras Coşkuntuncel
