Turkey has barred employers from dismissing workers and will provide wage support to businesses as it moves to ease the economic hardship inflicted by the February 6 earthquake, the deadliest natural disaster in the country’s modern history.

Workplaces that were moderately or severely damaged in the earthquake will receive support to partially cover employees’ wages, according to a decree signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on Wednesday.

Businesses are also banned from laying off workers in the 10 provinces placed under a three-month period of emergency rule following the quake, which has killed more than 47,000 people across Turkey and Syria according to the Turkish disaster agency Afad and figures cited by Reuters. JPMorgan analysts said in a note last week that the region contributed more than 9 per cent towards Turkey’s gross domestic product.