Workers at Nef Reserve Kandilli site in Üsküdar have been waiting four months for their wages

Construction workers employed on the Nef Reserve Kandilli project in Istanbul's Üsküdar district have launched a protest outside Metreküp Mimarlık's Maslak office over wages that have gone unpaid for months. The Istanbul 1st Commercial Court of First Instance issued a temporary moratorium decision for the company on November 5. Sözcü newspaper reported the story.

After the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) appointed a trustee to Nef İnşaat, owned by Erden Timur, and its affiliated companies, Metreküp Mimarlık, which took over the Nef Reserve Kandilli project, became unable to pay the workers their wages. The workers claimed that the company lost money in Tera and that, for this reason, neither the subcontractor firms nor the workers themselves have been able to collect what they are owed.

One worker who took the floor at the protest, stating that they had not received their wages for four months, said "we had to use our credit cards," and said that their debts had piled up, that they were facing foreclosure, that they had no food or bread left, that their electricity had been cut off and that no hot water was being supplied to the radiators. Another worker, who said they had not received wages for three months, said: "We cannot send our children to school, we cannot send money to our families. There are those who have been evicted from their homes because they could not pay their rent."

In another development linked to the fund investigation, it was reported that Metreküp Holding Board Chairman Ömer Öziskender was also appointed Chairman of the Board of Dünya Varlık on November 5, after Dünya Varlık Board Chairman Ali Emre Ballı was found dead in his car. Ali Paslı, who was arrested as part of the same investigation, resigned from his membership on the Dünya Varlık board of directors on November 9. The workers announced that they will not leave the construction site until their receivables are paid.