WHAT HAPPENS IN TURKISHCOLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS?

Dr. Ceyhun GULER

Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University

Department of Labour Economics & Industrial Relations

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The legal framework of the collective bargaining system in Turkey

Framework of collective bargaining in Turkey aredetermined by two separate laws for private and publicservants.

1)Public Servants' Unions and Collective BargainingLaw No.4688: Collective bargaining rights of publicservants in Turkey was recognized in 2012. The right tostrike is still prohibited for public servants.

2) Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining LawNo. 6356: It regulates union rights and freedomsof workers, including collective bargainingagreements.

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Scope and Level of Collective Bargaining Agreement

The collective bargaining agreementssigned in Turkey widely in the workplace

or enterprise level.

Also limited group collective agreementssigned between employers and workers'

trade unions.

Collective agreements are signed at thenational and sectoral level only for

publice servants.

The group collective agreements signedin the metal sector are the most

overrated and it covering mostworkers in Turkey after the collective agreement

forpublic servants.

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Scope and Level of Collective Bargaining Agreement

The framework agreements are signed in the vocational education, occupationalhealth and safety, social responsibilityand employment policies between theemployers / their trade unions and the

workers trade unions.

Framework agreement is not a commonpractice in Turkey.

Sectoral or national level collectivebargaining agreements are not signed in

Turkey for workers.

The general collective agreement forpublic servants regulates the general employee compendiousness rights andwages of public servants while branchcollective agreements regulate specific

rights of branch employees.

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In conjunction with theeconomic development of

Turkey, duration of collectiveagreement could be thesubject of dispute in the

process of collectivebargaining.

Common practicethroughout Turkey for

two years.

According to laws thedurations of collective

agreements are at leastone at most three years

for workers.

For the public servantsthe duration of public

collective agreements aretwo year.

Duration of collective agreements

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In prosedure, members of theparty trade union benefitfrom the collective agreement

However, members of another trade unio nor non

trade union membersbenefit from collectiveagreement by paying

solidarity fees.

Benefiting from collective agreements

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Trade union approvalis not required tobenefit from the

collective agreementwith solidarity fees.

The solidarity feecan not exceed themembership fee.

Inpractice, thesolidarity fee is

generally as muchas the union

member ship fee.

Solidarity Fees

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In the public collective agreement, all servantsbenefit from the signed collective agreementwithout solidarity fee etc. It does not matterwhether being trade union member or not.

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For the enterprise level collective agreement: The trade union, which represents one percent of the workers in the sector in

which it is established and represent forty percent of theworkers in the enterprise and has the highest number of

members in that enterprise, is authorized to sign collectiveagreements.

For the workplace collective agreement: The trade unions thatrepresents one percent of the workers in the sector in which it is established and represent more than half of the workers in the

workplace and has the most members in that workplace is authorized to sign collective agreements.

Collective agreement signing authority

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President of the Public Employer Delegation on behalf of thepublic administration and Public servants trade union

confederation with the highest number of members and tradeunion with the highest number of members in each branch have

the singing authority public servants collective agreement.

Fort the public servants collective agreement: Public Employers' Delegation on behalf of the public administration and Public

Servants TradeUnions Delegation on behalf of the publicservants attend collective bargaining negotiations.

Collective agreement signing authority

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For Workplace and Enterplace CollectiveAgreements: Workers Trade Unions,employer or employers trade unions

For Group Collective Agreements:Workers Trade Unions and Employerstrade unions

For Public Servants Collective agreements:Public Employers' Delegation on behalf ofpublic adminstration and Public ServantsTradeUnions Delegation are the parties ofcollective agreement.

Parties of the collective agreement

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The Public Employers' Delegationis under the chairmanship of theDeputy President or minister appointed by the President of the Public, consists of representatives of ministries and public institutions andorganizations determined by the President.

Public Servants Trade Union Delegation is chaired by therepresentation of The confederation with the highest number of members in terms of the total number of members of the affiliatedtrade unions. One representative to be determined by the trade unionswith the highest number of members in each service branch. And onerepresentatives which determined by the each confederations in thefirst, second and third place in terms of total number of members, based on the number of members of the affiliated trade unions.

Parties of the public servantscollective agreement

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Trial Preriod: Accordingto the labor law, the

trial period is at mosttwo months. With a

collective agreement, this period can be

extended up to fourmonths.

Content of Collective Agereement

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According to the labour law, the wage is paid at leastonce a month.This period

can be reduced for up to oneweek with individual

employment agreements orcollective agreements.

Annual leave periods can be increased by individual

employment agreements orcollective agreements.

The equalization period is two months and can be

extended up to four monthsby collective agreements.

Some other issues regulated bycollective agreements

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Wages are the main causes of disputes in the collective bargainingprocess in Turkey.

Increase of wages is usually calculated separately for each year in a two-year agreement.

The increase is reflected in the wage in 6-month periods. (Exm.. 1st SixMonth, 2nd SixMonth, 3th SixMonthand 4th SixMonth)

Increases by seniority is common practice in Turkey. Usually afterequally icreases. Wage increases are given according to seniorityadditionally.

Consumer price indexes and inflation are also taken in to considerationin wage increases.

Content of Collective Agereement: Wages

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Education allowance, military allowance, marriageallowance, fuel aid, death allowance, maternity allowance,disability assistance, travel assistance, clothing aid,cleaning materials and kitchen packages, feast bonuses,determination of work equipment by workers are additionalrights issued by the employer, which are arranged incollective agreements generally in Turkey.

Permissions for trade union activities are also covered anddetermined by collective bargaining.

Content of Collective Agereement: Regulations on socialrights

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Breast feeding rooms, nursery, maternity leave, maternity allowances are the most common

regulations in collective agreements of Turkey.

There are advanced regulations in a verylimited number of collective agreements.

Inthis regard, rights of LGBTI individuals can be found in a limited number of collective

agreement.

Some agreements have broad definitions of equality.

Content of Collective Agereement: Gender

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We do not have a database forcollectivebargainingin Turkey.

Most of tradeunions do not want to sharetheir collectiveagrementswith anyone.

Passivecompetitionbetween tradeunions is effective on thisissue.

Public servantscollectiveagreement is very ineffective.

As soon as it is necessary toestablish a database in Turkey

Coming to the conclusion

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WithHealth

WithHopefully

WithoutCorona

Thanksa lot

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