Constitutional provisions on union rights in Turkey: a comparative review

Abstract

In Turkey, the development of a labour movement under relatively independent circumstances was not allowed historically, and supervision via legislation has regulated the union rights within narrow patterns. For this reason, in order to assess the development of the labour movement in Turkey, the essential characteristics of the political culture must be taken into consideration in addition to the objective conditions of the economy and the efforts to be articulated to international capitalism. Yet, the regulations in force are far behind the international norms which, in fact, do not threaten global capitalism. Constitutional regulations neglect the political function of trade unions and restrict the right to establish trade unions by a series of abstract security concerns. Public officials are excluded from the right to strike and the strikes are limited by the conflict of interests. Furthermore, the Government authority on strike postponement is reduced to a ban on strikes by means of mandatory arbitration regulations which are under Constitutional guarantee.