450 subcontracted workers fired from site of deadly Siirt copper mine disaster, 12 January 2017

 A total of 450 subcontracted workers at a copper mine in the Şirvan district of the southeastern province of Siirt, which was the site of a deadly landslide in November 2016, have been fired after operations in the area were halted due to the deadly incident. The mine, which was the scene of a huge landslide that claimed 16 construction workers’ lives, canceled the agreement of the workers who had continued to work in the area after the incident. “After the incident they called all of us in. We came and helped take our worker friends stuck under the wreckage. We were there until the last worker was taken out. But later they called us again and told that our job was canceled and that we should sign the cancelation agreement prepared by them,” said a truck driver in the area, Sezgin Deniz.

The workers said they had not been paid for two months and were finally paid a couple of days ago … The owner of the mine, Park Elektrik A.Ş., […] is a member of the Ciner Group, one of the largest business groups in Turkey, with investments in mining, energy, tourism and media.

[BHRRC attempted to contact the company to respond to this item. The contact details provided on the company's official website were not operative.]