Two steps forward, one step back, or vice versa: the new legal framework of collective labour relations in Turkey1

Abstract

Due to the late start of industrialization and development of a working class and democratization in Turkey, all the labour and democratic rights gained through class struggle elsewhere in Europe were introduced in Turkey by the state. This saw the detailed framework of Turkish industrial relations being defined by law, with trade unions not challenging the limits to enhance their rights. Previous collective labour acts had been criticized for decades as a heritage of the 1980 military coup. Following amendments to the 1982 Constitution in 2010, a new collective labour act, the Trade Union and Collective Agreement Act (TUCAA), was adopted in 2012. In this article, the Trade Union and Collective Agreement Act will be examined from the perspective of the triad of the right to organize, the right to bargain collectively, and the right to strike, with the main changes also being reviewed in a general comparison with the previous acts.