New Labour Law Legalised Agency Work and Private Employment Bureaus in Turkey

Recently the AKP government passed a new law to legalise agency work and private employment bureaus. The MPs of the ruling party voted in favour of the bill which is going to change the working conditions of workers radically. The government paid regard to neither the objections of trade unions nor the demands of workers. What’s more the AKP presented the law as “good news” when in fact it means slavery for workers.

Turkish capitalists and rulers covet China and want to transform Turkey into a replica of China. They seek to lower the labour cost to the level of China and boost the economy. The legislation about private employment bureaus and agency work was an important step in accordance with this purpose. Up until now the private employment bureaus were just kind of intermediary between workers and bosses. They were not legally allowed to employ workers. But from now on they will employ workers and hire them out to the bosses hourly, daily, weekly or monthly. The bosses of the private employment bureaus will take their commission from workers’ wages. Workers will work on short-term contracts (maximum for 8 months) without severance pay and be frequently jobless putting them in a situation of dire poverty. The workers will in practice be deprived of almost all their legal rights such as annual leave, maternity leave and so on. It will be much easier for the bosses to refrain from paying their contribution for workers’ social insurance. And the worst part is that the already bad situation with the general unionisation rate will drop to ground level. So it will be harder for workers to seek their rights.

After the law comes into force workers will not be able to make a job application individually. The bureaus will replace IS-KUR, the state job centre, and workers will have to make their applications to them. Workers will be forced to accept each and every condition imposed by bosses; short-term contracts without job security, lack of safety measures, low wages, long working hours etc. Together with the widespread subcontracting companies, private employment bureaus will worsen the working and living conditions of workers.

In the last 14 years Turkey’s economy grew continuously and it became the 18th biggest economy in the world. But what is left to the working class is nothing but poverty and suffering. The share of the richest 1% was 39.4% in 2002 and it rose to 54.3% in 2014. It means that the %1 of the population owns half of the wealth. A handful of people possess an immense wealth while workers and their families suffer from extreme poverty. Thus, contrary to what is said, the growth of economy means a poorer working class.

The greedy bosses and the AKP government are to blame for the sufferings of workers. The AKP increased the age of retirement, generalised subcontracting, imposed flexible work, put the trade unions under severe control, paid no mind to workplace accidents, fatalities, safety measures and controls and so on. A lot of workers support AKP on the basis of certain political and historical reasons. Social and political polarization affects the working class in a negative way. The lack of fighting trade unions and solidarity encourages the government for extensive attacks. The AKP government seeks to grow the economy at the cost of workers’ lives. But surely workers will realise the true face of the AKP. They will sooner or later achieve awareness about their real enemies.