Turkish Saran Holding to dismiss employees without COVID-19 jabs
A Turkish Health Ministry official holds a vial of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, in a cold storage warehouse in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2021. (Turkish Health Ministry via AP)


Turkish Saran Holding, which owns several media units – namely S Sport, S Sport2, Radyo Spor, Radyo Trafik, Radio Slow Time, ajansspor.com and AlmaSport TV – said it will lay off employees who are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

According to a statement delivered to employees bearing the signature of the holding’s CEO, Saadettin S. Saran, the employees have until Sept. 15 to receive their jabs, and those who prefer not to be vaccinated will no longer be an employee from that date.

"As of September 15, 2021, we expect our group's employees to meet the conditions for vaccination," it said, adding that they "sincerely thank many of our colleagues who responded positively to this call."

Meanwhile, the statement added that they are "regret to say that" they will have to "end our cooperation and part ways with our colleagues who refrain from fulfilling the conditions by the determined date."

Many technology giants in the United States already require their employees to be vaccinated.

Google, for example, introduced a vaccination requirement for its employees returning to the office. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that it is mandatory for everyone working in the company's offices to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Later, companies such as Facebook and Netflix also followed suit.

CNN International most recently fired three employees who returned to the office without receiving vaccinations.