Thousands of interviews have been performed to fill the 2,450 positions that have opened up in post-disaster cleanup efforts. The TL 641 monthly wage for the three-month temp positions has even the unemployed turning their noses up at the work, leaving only 770 of the positions filled. Residents of neighborhoods that have not yet been cleaned up are furious, and municipal officials say the 1,680 empty slots must be filled as soon as possible.
In the hard-hit Küçükçekmece, Bağcılar, Esenyurt, Başakşehir, Silivri and Çatalca districts, the organizing and landscaping work was originally planned to last three months and swiftly clean up and minimize the damage caused in the floods. The expected progress has not been made, however, and one month has already come and gone with little accomplished.
Authorities say they cannot make sense of the situation, with high unemployment still generating little interest in the jobs. Evaluating the situation, Küçükçekmece District Governor Orhan Öztürk said: “Our people have grown used to comfort. Everybody wants a desk job.” Of the workers that stayed on, a high number, 110, of them are women.
In Küçükçekmece, the municipality planned to employ 750 people in the post-disaster relief efforts; 2,415 interviews were held, and 686 people were hired. Authorities thought that even if the 686 hired were not able to do the work of 750 people, the number would still be sufficient. But after the first day of work, 150 people either quit or never showed up. The second day, another 150 were lost, bringing the number of filled positions down to 386. “In our region, the work that we should have done in 10 days could only be completed in 20. Workers quitting led to a delay in cleaning up the area. … It's strange that, even as the winter approaches, people are refusing work that's above the military wage and includes coverage by the SGK [Social Security Institution],” Öztürk said.
Some residents felt forced to take matters into their own hands. The residents of a housing development on Halkalı Altınşehir Road said the municipality only began cleaning their area 34 days after the floods struck. They complained that they were surrounded by swamp-like mud during this time and that some of them paid for private workers out of their own pockets to do some cleaning just to make the situation livable.
And Halkalı isn't the worst off. In Esenyurt, only 50 people applied for 200 positions, and it remains unclear how many of them will be hired. Work in the region won't begin until a certain number of people are hired. In Bağcılar, only 25 people are working, a fraction of the 250 spaces available. The only district able to fill all its spots has been Çatalca, where significant progress has been made in the post-disaster efforts.
