Turkey’s unionization rate fell below 14 percent in July as growth in the registered workforce far outpaced an increase in union membership, according to official figures published Tuesday.
The number of workers covered by the statistics rose by 5.58 percent from January to 17,630,475, while union membership increased by only 0.79 percent to 2,432,789, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said.
As a result the unionization rate declined from 14.45 percent in January to 13.79 percent in July, leaving nearly 15.2 million registered workers without union membership.
The figures do not cover Turkey’s entire workforce. Civil servants are included in separate union statistics, while informal workers are not counted.
The data, published in the Official Gazette, are used in determining whether unions meet the sector-level membership requirement for collective bargaining authorization.
Under Turkey’s Law No. 6356 on Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining Agreements, a union must represent at least 1 percent of workers in its sector, in addition to meeting workplace or company-level membership requirements, to obtain authorization to negotiate a collective agreement.
Only 60 of the 246 active labor unions exceeded the 1 percent sector threshold in July, while 186 remained below it, according to the ministry.
The trade, office, education and fine arts category — one of 20 industry groups officially defined under Turkish labor law — was the largest, with 4,508,122 registered workers. It was followed by metal with 1,962,044 workers and construction with 1,930,577.
Hizmet-İş, a union representing mainly municipal and other general services workers, was Turkey’s largest labor union with 286,094 members. It was followed by Türk Metal with 264,726 members and the healthcare union Öz Sağlık-İş with 217,776.
The ministry publishes the statistics twice a year. Its January figures recorded 16,699,084 workers and 2,413,790 union members, for a unionization rate of 14.45 percent.
Labor groups have long argued that subcontracting, temporary employment, anti-union dismissals and legal barriers to collective bargaining discourage workers from organizing. The International Labour Organization has also repeatedly raised concerns about restrictions on freedom of association and collective bargaining in Turkey.