Legal Framework and Scope of Social Dialogue at Workplace Level in Turkey

Abstract

Before analysing the social dialogue at the workplace level in Turkey, it is necessary to observe the position of social dialogue at the workplace level within the structure of Turkish labour relations. Within working life, because there are social dialogue practices on various platforms, so the structure of the system should be examined from a holistic perspective. For this purpose, in this chapter, a figure indicating the social dialogue mechanisms in Turkey has been provided. When examining Fig. 5.1, it can be seen that there are several structures that were established based on bilateral or tripartite participation principles to ensure social dialogue in working life. However, these structures are very intermingled and include only unionized workers or unionized officials amongst the registered employees. This figure does not represent the Turkish working life completely. Therefore, it is necessary to reveal reasons behind the low level of existing social dialogue in Turkey, which was identified in the EU and ILO documents, although such a wide organization has been established. Importantly, employees who cannot take part in the organization’s representation come under the umbrella of the existing social dialogue system via bilateral social dialogue.