Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/pc/text/humanrts/turkey.txw

Text File | 1996-01-05 | 11KB | 215 lines

TITLE:  TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995



Section 6  Worker Rights

     a.  The Right of Association

Most workers have the right to associate freely and form
representative unions.  Exceptions are schoolteachers (both
public and private), civil servants, the police, and military
personnel.  Upon taking office in June 1993, the Government of
Prime Minister Ciller renewed the pledge to bring Turkish labor
legislation into conformity with the standards of the
International Labor Organization (ILO), and its intention to
grant trade union rights to civil servants (including
teachers).  In early 1994, the Government introduced in
Parliament a bill to grant to civil servants the legal right to
form unions, which includes some collective bargaining rights.
The draft law would also allow the Government to determine
whether to permit a particular strike by civil servants.  In
May a combination of center-right and Islamist-right political
party deputies voted against the draft in parliamentary
committee.  The Government and Parliament must now reconcile
their differences on this legislation.  Permission for civil
servants to form trade unions and for unions to engage in
political activity will require amendments to the Constitution
--a procedure further complicated by the need to gain support
among the opposition parties in order to secure the requisite
two-thirds majority.

The law states that unions and confederations may be founded
without prior authorization based on a petition to the governor
of the province where the union's headquarters are to be
located.  Although unions are independent of the Government and
political parties, they must have government permission to hold
meetings or rallies and must allow police to attend conventions
and record the proceedings.  The Constitution requires
candidates for union office to have worked 10 years in the
industry represented by the union.  Some 14 percent of the
total civilian labor force (aged 15 and above) are unionized.
There are three confederations of labor unions in Turkey:  the
Turkish Confederation of Workers Unions (Turk-Is), the
Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak-Is), and the
Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions (DISK).  There
are also some independent unions.

Unions and their officers have a statutory right to express
views on issues directly affecting members' economic and social
interests, but the Constitution prohibits any union role in
party politics (such as organic or financial connections with
any political party or other association).  In practice, unions
have been able to convey clearly in election and referendum
campaigns their support for, or opposition to, given political
parties and government policies.  In May the Government
proposed a "democratization" package.  One of its proposals
would allow unions and other groups (women and students, for
example) to have formal links to political parties.
Prosecutors may request labor courts to order a trade union or
confederation into liquidation based on alleged violation of
specific legal norms.  The Government, however, may not
summarily dissolve a union.

The right to strike, while guaranteed in the Constitution, is
partially restricted.  For example, workers engaged in the
protection of life and property and those in the mining and
petroleum industries, sanitation services, national defense,
and education do not have the right to strike.  Collective
bargaining is required before a strike.

The law specifies the series of steps a union must take before
it may strike or an employer may engage in a lockout.
Nonbinding mediation is the last of those steps.  In sectors in
which strikes are prohibited, disputes are resolved through
binding arbitration.  A party that fails to comply with these
steps forfeits its rights.  The struck employer may respond
with a lockout but is prohibited from hiring strikebreakers or
using administrative personnel to perform jobs normally done by
strikers.  Article 42 of Law 2822, governing collective
bargaining, strikes, and lockouts, prohibits the employer from
terminating workers encouraging or participating in a legal
strike.  Unions are forbidden to engage in secondary
(solidarity), wildcat, or general strikes.

The Government also has the statutory power to suspend strikes
for 60 days for reasons of national security or public health
and safety.  Unions may petition the Council of State to lift
such a suspension, but if this appeal fails the strike is
subject to compulsory arbitration at the end of the 60-day
period.  Some 24 strikes, involving about 1,800 workers, took
place in the first 10 months of 1994.  The Government did not
suspend any strikes in 1994.

With government approval, unions may and do form or join
confederations and international labor bodies, as long as these
organizations are not hostile to Turkey or to freedom of
religion or belief.  The International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions (ICFTU) approved DISK as an affiliate in December
1992.  Turk-Is is a longstanding member.  Hak-Is applied for
ICFTU affiliation in 1993.  The application remains pending
with the ICFTU.

In June the Parliament reapproved ILO Convention 158
(termination of employment at the initiative of the employer),
a measure which the late President Ozal had vetoed in 1992
after the Parliament had passed it.  President Demirel signed
the measure.  As mentioned in Sections 2.a. and 2.b. above, in
some instances labor union members have been the subject of
government limits on freedom of speech and assembly.

     b.  The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

All industrial workers have the right to organize and bargain
collectively, and most industrial activity and some public
sector agricultural activities are organized.  The law requires
that, in order to become a bargaining agent, a union must
represent not only 50 percent plus one of the employees at a
given work site but also 10 percent of all the workers in that
particular industry.  This 10-percent barrier has the effect of
favoring established unions, and particularly those affiliated
with Turk-Is, the confederation that represents nearly 80
percent of organized labor in Turkey.

The ILO has called on Turkey to rescind this 10-percent rule.
Both Turk-Is and the Turkish employers' organization favor
retention of the rule, however, and the Government has not
until now pursued a change.  However, the government
representative informed the ILO Committee on the Application of
Standards that the Ministry of Labor and Social Security now
proposes to remove the 10-percent numerical restriction, and
that its proposal had been communicated to the social
partners.

The law on trade unions stipulates that an employer may not
dismiss a labor union representative without rightful cause.
The union member may appeal such a dismissal to the courts and,
if the ruling is in the union member's favor, the employer must
reinstate him and pay all back benefits and salary.

Union organizing and collective bargaining are permitted in the
duty-free export processing zones at Antalya, Istanbul, Izmir,
and Mersin.  Workers in those zones, however, are not allowed
to strike during the first 10 years of operation.  Until then,
settlements not otherwise reached will be determined by binding
arbitration.

     c.  Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

The Constitution and statutes prohibit compulsory labor.  The
laws are enforced.

     d.  Minimum Age for Employment of Children

The Constitution and labor laws forbid employment of children
younger than 15 years of age, with the exception that those
aged 13 and 14 may engage in light part-time work if enrolled
in school or vocational training.  The Constitution also
prohibits children from engaging in physically demanding jobs,
such as underground mining, and from working at night.  The
Ministry of Labor effectively enforces these laws only in the
organized industrial sector.

In practice, many children work because families frequently
need the supplementary income.  An informal system provides
work for young boys at low wages, e.g., in auto repair shops.
Girls are rarely seen working in public, but many are kept out
of school to work in handicrafts, especially in rural areas.
Turkey is participating in the ILO's international program on
the elimination of child labor.

     e.  Acceptable Conditions of Work

The Labor Ministry is legally obliged to set minimum wages at
least every 2 years through a minimum wage board, a tripartite
government-industry-union body.  In recent years it has done so
annually.  In July the nominal minimum wage in Turkish lira
(TL) was increased by approximately 67 percent over the year
before.  The monthly minimum wage rate (after taxes), which
became effective September 1, is approximately $86 for workers
older than 16 and about $73 for workers under 16 at the
exchange rate prevailing in September.

It would be difficult for a single worker, and impossible for a
family, to live on the minimum wage without support from other
sources.   Most workers earn considerably more.  Workers
covered by the labor law, who constitute about one-third of the
total labor force, also receive a hot meal, daily food
allowance; transportation to and from work; a fuel allowance;
and other fringe benefits which, according to the Turkish
employers' organization, make basic wages alone only about 37
percent of total remuneration.

Labor law provides for a nominal 45-hour workweek, although
most unions have bargained for fewer hours.  The law prescribes
a weekly rest day.  Labor law limits the number of overtime
hours to 3 hours a day for up to 90 days in a year.  The labor
inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor effectively enforces wage
and hour provisions in the unionized industrial, service, and
government sectors.

Occupational health and safety regulations are mandated by law,
but the Government has not carried out an effective inspection
and enforcement program.  Law 1475 allows for the shutdown of
an operation if a five-man committee, which includes safety
inspectors, employee, and employer representatives, determines
that the operation endangers workers' lives.  In practice,
financial constraints, limited safety awareness, carelessness,
and fatalistic attitudes result in scant attention to
occupational safety and health by workers and employers alike.