Turkish unions commit to advancing a gender-transformative agenda

Participants from Petrol-İş, Birleşik Metal-İş, Öz İplik-İş, Özçelik-İş, Türkiye Dok Gemi-İş (TDGİ), Çimse-İş, Selüloz-İş, Lastik-İş, Özağaç-İş and Kristal-İş reviewed the situation of women in their industries and unions and identified priorities for future action.

Union leaders and the Turkish women's network described the feminist resolution as historic and committed to implementing its transformative agenda.

Established in 2015, the IndustriALL Turkish women's network has played a key role in advancing gender equality in the world of work and combating gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH).

Despite this progress, participants recognized that women continue to face significant barriers. Women remain underrepresented in manufacturing, including STEM occupations, due to the unequal distribution of unpaid care work, persistent discrimination and gender stereotypes that restrict access to certain jobs.

The ILO Office in Türkiye highlighted that women in manufacturing earn on average 14.6 per cent less than men, while major data gaps remain.

Within trade unions, participants highlighted the continued underrepresentation of women, particularly in leadership positions. They stressed the need to organize more women workers and increase their representation. But participation means more than numbers: women must have the influence and power to shape bargaining agendas and workplace policies. They also underlined the important role of women's structures and the need to organize more white-collar workers, many of whom are women.

Participants committed to fighting GBVH, addressing pay inequity and women's occupational health concerns. They pledged to challenge patriarchy and neoliberalism while advancing women's representation in industries and unions.

Strengthening GBVH prevention and support measures

In the metal sector, Birleşik Metal-İş, Özçelik-İş and Türk Metal have successfully negotiated provisions based on ILO Convention 190 and Recommendation 206 in the industry-level agreement with the employers' association MESS. The groundbreaking agreement recognizes domestic violence as a workplace issue and includes support for survivors, counselling services and workplace procedures.

Other affiliates have also incorporated GBVH provisions into collective agreements and continued awareness-raising among members. Öz İplik-İş has developed policies and training programmes through a social dialogue platform bringing together companies, brands and unions.

Affiliates called for further IndustriALL technical support to strengthen implementation of GBVH provisions, prevention measures and workplace risk management.

Advancing pay equity through research, transparency and gender-neutral job evaluation

Research conducted by Birleşik Metal-İş and Petrol-İş found pay gaps in basic wages ranging from three to ten per cent in selected companies. However, the gaps widened further when overtime opportunities, seniority and career progression were taken into account, demonstrating that equal wage scales alone do not eliminate pay inequality.

Participants agreed on priorities including improving pay equity data collection, strengthening understanding of pay transparency measures and expanding collective bargaining on pay equity. An ILO expert introduced the Gender Neutral Job Evaluation for Equal Pay (GNJEEP) tool. The tool could be adapted to the Turkish context through cooperation between trade unions, employers and public institutions.

Developing gender-transformative OHS policies

The unions also called for stronger gender-transformative occupational health and safety (OHS) policies and more training on issues such as menopause in the workplace.

"Gender equality is not a women's issue alone. Trade unions in Türkiye have made progress but they must move faster on women's representation, challenge unequal power relations and stereotypes, and organize white-collar workers, many of whom are women,"

says IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan.