On 12 July 2021, the IUF filed a complaint with the International Labour Organization’s Committee on Freedom of Association regarding the government of Turkey’s violations of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which protect workers’ rights to freely organise trade unions and to collectively bargain.
The complaint, which cites Cargill, Olam Group and Döhler Group, details how Turkish law and practice fail to provide both sufficient protection against and effective remedy in cases of anti-union dismissal. A loophole in Turkish law permits employers in Turkey to pay enhanced compensation, at their own choosing, to a worker unfairly dismissed for union activity rather than comply with court-ordered reinstatement.
As the complaint demonstrates, employers, like transnational companies Cargill, Olam Group and Döhler Group, illegally dismiss union leaders, systematically exploit this loophole in Turkish law and opt to pay for their human rights violations rather than reinstate the victimised workers, all to prevent their employees from organising a union.
A blatant example of union-busting practices in Turkey is the case of ingredients giant Döhler Group. In March 2016, Turkey’s Labour Ministry granted Tekgıda-İş collective bargaining status at Döhler Turkey. Since then, Döhler Group management in Turkey has engaged in a concerted effort to deny workers their trade union rights. It has unfairly dismissed workers for union activity; illegally interrogated workers for their e-state details to check their union status and pressured them to resign their union membership (those who have refused to disclose their e-state details have been sacked); and forced workers, mostly union members, to resign and be re-employed by a subcontractor in an attempt to destroy the union. Additionally, Döhler failed to collectively bargain with the workers’ formally recognised union, Tekgıda-İş.
While the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association has on repeated occasions expressed that the appropriate remedy for a retaliatory dismissal because of trade union activity is reinstatement, the government of Turkey, despite its ratification of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, has allowed this legal loophole to remain; the complaint calls for the closing of this loophole and demands Turkey comply with international standards.
