A pragmatic analysis of social dialogue in Turkey

Abstract

Social dialogue (hereinafter SD) is characterized by a variety of factors. An approach to SD cannot be confined to its legalistic component. Labour legislation can never tell the full story. Equally important are the historical, political, cultural, economic and social, and international components. The problematic nature of SD in Turkey cannot be put into perspective and solved unless it is considered in conjunction with the interdependence between aggregate components shaping it. Thus, a pragmatic look at SD has to address the problems emanating from its various components. Institutional framework. Labour legislation provides for the establishment of various bipartite, tripartite, and tripartite plus bodies and mechanisms at the national and establishment levels. Work Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and Tripartite Consultation Board are the main national-level institutions. Other formal platforms for social dialogue at the national level include, inter alia, the Minimum Wage Board, Supreme Arbitration Board, Unemployment Insurance Fund Management Board and the Occupational Standards Commission functioning under ISKUR (Turkish Employment Organization), Commission on the Cessation of Work in Workplaces or Disclosure of Workplaces, Apprenticeship and Vocational Training Council, Provincial Apprenticeship and Vocational Training Boards, and the general congresses and managing boards of public social security organizations. The new Turkish Labour Act of June 2003 envisages employer’s obligation to inform workers of the conditions applicable to the contract and information-sharing and consultation in procedures pertaining to projected collective redundancies apart from trade union representatives and some bipartite and tripartite bodies at the establishment level. Collective bargaining is the most widespread form of social dialogue. Turkey is on the verge of major social and economic innovations. There is an indisputable impact of EU law on the evolution of SD mechanisms. Sound social dialogue and resulting social pacts will serve as a means of strengthening Turkey’s capacity to manage change as well as to prepare for Union membership. According to the National Programme for the Adoption of the Community Acquis and the ‘Revised Version of the National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis’ and the ‘Decision on the Implementation and Coordination and Monitoring of the NPAA’, the current level of social dialogue in the establishment has to be enhanced in line with the Council Directive 2001/86/EC of 8 October 2001 supplementing the Statute for a European company with regard to the involvement of employees and Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 43, No. 1, 143 – 152, January 2007