Two municipal workers dismissed in Turkey’s north for dancing in cemetery

Two female municipal workers who were on duty in a cemetery were dismissed after a video emerged on social media of them dancing in a cemetery in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak on July 24. 

Two women had been employed in Zonguldak’s Ereğli district as casual laborers as part of the “Program of Working for the Benefit of Society” by the municipality for six months.

The video of the women dancing while they were cleaning the city cemetery stirred a debate. 

The Ereğli municipality made a statement over the incident, saying they had been dismissed.     

“It has been determined that the female workers in the video and the other female worker who recorded the video are temporary six-month workers appointed by the Black Sea Ereğli Municipality. Because the personnel assigned to the municipality’s directorate of cemeteries did not meet the institutional identity of the Black Sea Ereğli Municipality, their contracts have been abolished,” said the written statement.