Disabled workers have been resisting against their lay-offs for a whole month now. They lost their jobs because they attended a strike for a pay raise and the guarantee of social rights at the Bizimköy Disabled Production Line in Kocaeli (west of Istanbul).
20 workers, 18 of them disabled, had gone on strike on 22 June when their demands for their rights had not been met. The following day, they were made redundant because they supposedly harmed the institution. The workers set up a tent and kept their resistance for five days. Subsequently, they opened a stand and initiated a signature campaign to be submitted to parliament.
On Wednesday (21 July) a group of about 80 people from the Confederation of the Disabled and the affiliated Turkish Federation of the Blind and the Six Points Association of the Blind visited the resisting workers to demonstrate their solidarity.
They made a press release read out by Turhan İçli, President of the Turkish Confederation of the Blind. İçli talked to bianet after the press release:
"86 disabled workers were employed in the institution in the year it was founded. After some time, the disabled workers encountered discrimination and humiliating behaviour; they lost their jobs and their employees' rights were cut. The workers have been paid the minimum wages for four years. Workers with kidney and heart insufficiency have to go to regular check-ups. When the workers went to hospital it was cut from their insurance premiums. Workers educated in the textile field were transferred to mushroom cultivation and greenhouse areas. Work accidents occurred due to a lack of physical arrangements for the disabled".
Breach of UN convention
İçli argued that the applications imposed by the institution and the lay-offs constitute a breach of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which was also signed by Turkey.
"The convention is based on the principle of equality and the law against discrimination", İçli continued. "However, we see that the disabled workers are being discriminated and that their rights are being restricted. These applications are opposing both international agreements and also the Constitution. We call upon the officials to take action accordingly".
"We want equality instead of protection"
Furthermore, İçli criticized the constitutional reform package to be adopted on 12 September. He disapproved of the wording of Article 10 of the Constitution on the principle of "equality" which defines children, elderly and disabled people as "people who need to be protected in social terms". "Using the word 'protection' in the article is the result of the charity culture. This article is contrary to the UN convention as well. Disabled people do not want to be safeguarded, they want to hold the same rights as their fellow citizenships. We reject this concept of protection", İçli explained. (SP/VK)
*Photograph: Çetin Ak
