District Governor Tolga Toğan, who was appointed as de-facto trustee to Bağlar Municipality, accused 37 cleaning workers of ‘ties with the organization (PKK)’ and fired them.

On November 28, the governor’s office had put Toğan in charge of hiring, payments, tender bids and other municipal activities. The de-facto trustee Toğan sent a letter to the cleaning company that works with the municipality and claimed that 37 workers had ties with the organization, which refers to the PKK, and demanded that these workers be fired as of January 1, 2017.

If the company continues to employ these workers, Toğan is authorized to cancel the municipal contract with this company unilaterally. The emergency decree no. 677 which was announced on November 22 authorizes trustees to cancel contracts regarding the purchase of goods and services.

The decree lays the foundation of endangering workers’ rights and firing of tens of thousands of workers.

No legal decision is needed for the trustee to use this authority, and a Police Headquarters’ report on workers 'having ties with terrorist organizations’ enables trustees to fire workers at will.