ILPC 2027

 Summary

This paper aims to provide insight into the role of the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi -The Justice and Development Party) government and that of the capital and labour in (re)construction of Turkey’s contemporary industrial relations. Underlying this argument is the AKP government’s re-institutionalisation of Turkey’s three-decade old collective labour legislation in the year 2012 on the justification of country’s need for a change in the rules regulating the industrial relations. Indeed, Turkey’s collective labour law which was put into practice by the military government in the year 1983, placed heavy restrictions on workers right to strike, right to collective bargaining and right to establish and join trade unions. AKP government’s decision to abolish these laws, therefore presented Turkey with an opportunity to meet the international and European labour standards and improve the state of institutional security for labour. Nevertheless, according to the proponents of labour rights operating at national and international levels, provisions of the new bill that is slotted to replace the old law; neither improves Turkish Laws’ compliance with international labour standards nor does it meet the security demands of Turkish labour (DISK, 2012, EC, 2012, ITUC, 2012).

Against this background, this study scrutinises the re-institutionalisation of political economy of insecurity in industrial relations under the decade long rule of the AKP and its neoliberal authoritarian policies. It places capital, labour and state in a wider politico-economic and social context and analyses their circumstances, interests and interactions in the process of most recent re-structuring of industrial relations system in Turkey. It also critically investigates the provisions of Turkey’s new collective labour legislation with regards to institutionalisation of what I call political economy of security/insecurity in industrial relations. In doing so, the study while on the one hand draws a clear picture regarding how AKP policy and practices represent historical continuity in domain of Turkish industrial relations on the other, provides a convincing argument as to how neoliberal globalisation and Turkey’s changing politico-economic landscape affected this transformation.

The methods adopted

This paper uses qualitative methods and utilises both secondary and primary data sources in order to embrace the most recent developments, changes and continuities in Turkey’s political economy of security in industrial relations. Its main secondary data sources are academic studies media sources and parliamentary proceedings. This study also utilises semi-structured in-depth interviews with the experts of industrial relations in academia, trade union activists, representatives of employees and high-level public sector officials in order to gather primary data.

Contribution

This paper, with its power-sensitive approach to industrial relations as well as its historical institutionalist methodology informed by critically re-conceptualised security, contributes to the wider literature of critical labour studies.

Bibliography

DISK. (2012). Akp’nin Otokratik Siyaset Anlayisina Ve Yeni Sendikal Rejime Karşi Mücadeleyi Yükselteceğiz! [Online]. Devrimci Isci Sendikalari Konfederasyonu [DISK].Available: http://www.disk.org.tr/default.asp?Page=Content&ContentId=1451 [Accessed 11/01/2012].

EC (2012). Turkey 2012 Progress Report, {Com(2012) 600 Final}. Brussels: European Commission.

ITUC. (2012). Turkey: Bill on Collective Labour Relations Act Far from Meeting Eu and International Standards [Online]. International Trade Union Confederation. Available: http://www.ituc-csi.org/turkey-bill-on-collective-labour.html?lang=en  [Accessed 21/06/2013].