Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations – 60

 

 

 

Flexibilisation and Modernisation of the Turkish Labour Market

 

 

 

Editor

 

Roger Blanpain

 

 

Guest editors

 

Frans Pennings and Nurhan Süral

 

 

Contributors

 

Toker Dereli

Peter Donders

Frank Hendrickx

Frans Pennings

Karin Sengers

Nurhan Süral

Peter van der Valk

Martijn van Velzen

Ton Wilthagen

 


 

Table of Contents

 

Preface

 

List of Abbrevations

 

Chapter 1            Introduction

                       

                        Nurhan Süral and Frans Pennings

 

1. 1                  General

1.2                   The Relevance of the Flexibilisation Process

1.3                   The (Historical) Background of the Flexibility Discussion

1.3.1                 A Very Short Overview of the Developments up to the 1990s

1.3.2                 The Preparation for Accession

1.4                   An Introduction to the Main Instruments and Actors

1.4.1                 The Main Statutory Instruments

1.4.2                 The Organisation of the Actors on the Labour Market

1.5                   The Progress of the Project

 

 

Chapter 2       Flexibilisation and the Formal and Informal Labour Market          

 

Toker Dereli, Karin Sengers and Peter Donders

 

2.1                   Introduction

2.2.                  The Turkish Labour Market and the Acquis Comunautaire

2.1.                  A View on the Acquis: the Employment Guidelines

2.2.                  Turkey and the Acquis on the Employment Guidelines

2.3                   The Current Turkish Situation

2.3.1                 Employment and Unemployment: Figures and Facts

2.3.2                 Specific Problems with Regard to the Flexibility of the Turkish Labour Market

2.3.2.1             The Informal Labour Market

2.3.2.2              The Position of Women

2.3.2.3              Sectoral Differences and Subcontracting

2.3.2.4              Flexibilisation Measures

2.4                   Conclusions and Recommendations

 

 

Chapter 3             Institutions of the Labour Market in Turkey

 

Peter Donders, Nurhan Süral and Karin Sengers

 

3.1                   Introduction

3.2                   ssk

3.3                   İş-Kur

3.4                   The Labour Inspectorate

3.5.                  Enforcement of Law

3.6.                  Conclusions

 

 

Chapter 4             The Turkish Social Dialogue: Structure, Practice and Attitudes

 

Peter van der Valk and Nurhan Süral

 

4.1                   Introduction

4.2                   The Turkish Social Partners

4.3                   The Statutory Framework for the Employers’ and Employees’ Organisations

4.3.1                 Principles Governing the Foundation of Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations

4.3.2                 Historical Background of the Statutory Framework for Employees and Employers Organisations

4.4                   Characteristics of the Labour Relations in Turkey

4.4.1                 Emphasis on Conflicts

4.4.2                 The Process of Collective Bargaining

4.4.2.1              Levels of Bargaining

4.4.2.2              Parties to Collective Bargaining

4.4.2.3              Issues of Collective Bargaining

4.5                   The Institutional Framework for the Social Dialogue

4.5.1                 The Formal Tripartite Structures

4.5.2                 Formal Bipartite Structures

4.5.3                 Informal (Non-institutionalised) Consultation

4.5.4                 The Approaches of the Social Partners to  Flexibility

4.6                    The Social Dialogue in Practice: Obstacles, Role of the Government, Style and Outcomes and    Success of Social Dialogue

4.6.1                 Introduction

4.6.2                 Obstacles to the Success of Social Dialogue

4.6.3                 The Role of Government within the System

4.6.4                 The Style of Turkish Social Dialogue

4.6.5                 Outcomes and Success of Social Dialogue

4.6.6                 Social and Economic Factors Influencing the Social Dialogue

4.7                               Turkish Labour Markets, Social Dialogue and the Issue of Flexibility

4.8                   Conclusions and Recommendations

4.8.1                 Main Conclusions Concerning Structure, Practise and Contents of Turkish social dialogue

4.8.2                 Improvements the Framework for the Turkish Social Dialogue

4.8.3                 Specific Suggestions for Improvements

 

 

Chapter 5            The Implementation of the Flexible Work Provisions in the Labour Act

 

Frank Hendrickx and Karin Sengers

 

5.1                   Introduction

5.2                   Overview of the eu Instruments on A-typical Work

5.3                   Fixed-Term Employment Contracts

5.3.1                 Council Directive 1999/70/ec

5.3.2                 Regulation of Fixed Term Employment in the Netherlands and Belgium

5.4                               A Comparison of the Turkish Provisions on Flexible Contracts with the Acquis

5.4.1                 The Rules Concerning Contracts for a Definite Period

5.4.1.1              Making a Contract for a Definite Period

5.4.1.2              Measures to Prevent Abuse

5.4.1.3              The Principle of Non-Discrimination

5.4.1.4              Information, Employment and Training Opportunities and Consultation

5.4.1.5              Conclusions

5.4.2                 Part-time Work

5.4.2.1              General

5.4.2.2              The Scope of the Rules and the Definition of Part-time Work

5.4.2.3              The Non-discrimination Clause

5.4.2.4              Information Procedures

5.4.2.5              Conclusions

5.4.3                 On Call Work

5.4.4                 Temporary Employment Contracts

5.4.4.1              Characteristics of Agencies for Temporary Work in eu Member States

5.4.4.2              The Turkish Rules

5.5                   Health and Safety for Temporary Workers

5.5.1                 Introduction

5.5.2                 A Comparison of Turkish Law with the Health and Safety Directive

5.5.2.1              The Non-discrimination Provision of Article 2

5.5.2.2              The Information Clause

5.5.2.3             The Provision on Training

5.5.2.4             The Use of Workers Services and Medical Surveillance

5.5.2.5                         The Provision on Protection and Prevention Services

5.5.2.6              The Responsibility for Temporary Employment Relationships

5.5.2.7             Conclusive Remarks

5.6                   The Rules Concerning Working Time

5.6.1                 The Scope of the Directive

5.6.2                 Definition of Working Time

5.6.3                 The Requirements on the Rest Periods

5.6.4                 The Provision on the Maximum Weekly Working Time

5.6.5                 Annual Leave

5.6.6                 Night work

5.5.7                 Preliminary Conclusions on the Implementation of the Directive

5.6.                  Conclusions

 

 

Chapter 6             The Relationship between Social Security and Flexibility

 

                        Frans Pennings, Nurhan Süral and Karin Sengers

 

6.1                   Introduction

6.2                   Relevant EU Rules and Policies

6.2.1                 Equal Treatment of Men and Women

6.2.2                 Employment Policy and Modernisation of Social Security Systems

6.3                   General Overview of the Turkish Social Security System

6.3.1                 Basic information

6.3.2                 The Draft Laws

6.3.3                 New Measures to Combat Undeclared Work

6.4                   Coverage by the Social Insurances Act

6.4.1                 Workers

6.4.2                 Extension of the Coverage to Persons with Work Relations other than Labour Contracts

6.4.3                 Dependants

6.4.4                 Voluntary Insurance

6.4.5                 Contingencies Covered

6.4.6                 Insurance Period and Contributory Days

6.4.7                 Contributions

6.5                   Social Security Rules Relevant to Flexible Workers

6.5.1                 Reference Periods

6.5.2                 On-call work

6.5.3                 Lump-sum Payments

6.5.4                 Part-time  Work

6.5.5                 Temporary Work

6.6                   Analysis

6.7                   Conclusions and Recommendations

Annex

 

 

Chapter 7        In Search of a Balance: Flexibility and Security Strategies in Employment Protection Legislation, Temporary Work and Part-Time Work

 

Martijn van Velzen and Ton Wilthagen

 

7.1                   Introduction

7.1.1                 The Concept of Flexicurity

7.1.2                 The Introduction of Flexibility in Turkey

7.1.3                 A Study of Flexicurity in Selected Countries

7.2                   Flexibility, Security and the European Employment Debate

7.3                   Modalities for Employment Flexibility and Security

7.3.1                 Levels of Employment Protection

7.3.1.1              The United States

7.3.1.2              Denmark

7.4                   Temporary Agency Work

7.4.1                 The United States

7.4.2                 The Netherlands

7.5                   Part-time Work

7.5.1                 The Netherlands

7.5.2                 Spain

7.6                   Interlude: European Indicators on Flexibility and Security

7.6.1                 A Flexicurity Index

7.6.2                 EES indicators

7.7                   Conclusion and Recommendations

 

 

Chapter 8            Conclusions

 

Nurhan Süral and Frans Pennings

 

8.1.                  Introduction

8.2                   The Context of the Flexibility Debate

8.3                   The Main Recommendations

8.4                   Final Conclusions

 

Bibliography

Index


 

Preface

 

 

‘Flexibilisation and Modernisation of the Turkish Labour Market’ – many readers will be puzzled by this title. Isn’t the Turkish labour market already very flexible? What is this project about? This confusion can be easily explained: Turkey has a large informal labour market which is indeed very flexible. Labour law requirements which might interfere with the matching of supply and demand are simply evaded. Our project is concerned with the formal labour market, where – as in many Western countries – the issue of flexibility has become a key factor in the drive to increase competitiveness and employment.

            Another dimension of the flexibibility discourse is the implementation of the acquis communautaire. The acquis require Turkey to increase the adaptability of the workforce; to reorient social security instruments to promote reintegration into work; and to promote increasing employment. Several instruments give guidance on allowing flexible forms of work and for providing security for the affected workers. Consequently, Turkey has two reasons to be interested in flexibility: to increase national competitiveness and to implement the acquis communautaire.

 

The aim of this project is to provide support to the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security in its efforts to implement the acquis and to consider whether further steps to  increase the flexibilisation and modernisation of the labour market can be taken. To fully address this aim,  the informal market has to be taken into account, along with the social protection of flexible workers, in order to prevent workers becoming worse off as a result of flexibilisation.

Thus, the project required a thorough study of the formal and informal labour market, the role of labour market institutions, social partners and social protection, before we could provide an adequate analysis and recommendations. Our analyses and recommendations were presented in several reports  which contained so much information, that we thought it worthwhile to present the contents to a wider audience. The result is this book.The texts underlying the various chapters were completed at different dates throughout the two year term of the project. The information underlying the various chapters was revised only in case of substantial developments which had an impact on the contents of the chapter concerned, with a final deadline of the end of October 2005.

 

This project was initiated within the framework of the Matra Pre-accession Projects Programme, financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This programme aims to assist the candidate Member States in meeting the criteria for eu membership, through bilateral co-operative projects focusing on the consequences of the implementation of European legislation. Furthermore, the programme aims to establish sustainable, working relationships between governmental institutions in the Netherlands and in the recipient countries. This project was monitored by the Agency for International Business and Cooperation (evd), part of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

 

The fourteen experts participating in this project worked in three teams; Tilburg University (the Netherlands), bmt consultants (Utrecht, the Netherlands) and the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. The team was supplemented by two representatives of Dutch social partmers, Willem Plessen of Randstad Holding and Han Westerhof, of fnv Bondgenoten, who participated in a workshop in Ankara.Essential support was given by professor Toker Dereli, of Işık University, Istanbul.

The Turkish Ministry of Labour Law and Social Security was the host for our many visits and workshops. Mr Cengiz Delibaş, Director General, and his team cooperated fully and were always prepared to take account of our suggestions and recommendations; we also have to thank Mr Şahabettin Akşahin, who took care of all organisational matters and more than that, and Ms Nedret Durutan for her support. A number of  affiliated institutions, including İş–Kur, ssk, sgk, were active in the project and participated in all discussions.

An essential role in the discussion on flexible work was played by the Turkish social partners. We have to thank them also for their comments on our papers.

 

We are grateful to Audrey MacDougall from the University of Edinburgh who made an indispensable contribution to this book by editing the text and through her suggestions for clarifications and additions.

 

 

Tilburg/Ankara, December 2005

 

Frans Pennings

Nurhan Süral

 

f.j.l.pennings@uvt.nl

sural@metu.edu.tr