ABSTRACT

One of the most important amendments about the principles of establishment in Trade Unions and Collective Agreement Law no. 6356 is enabling to establish local and regional trade unions without looking for the condition of “Operating across Turkey”. The law no. 6356, which adopts the principle of “establishment without an earlier notice”, abandoned the ban of establishing trade union on the basis of workplace and profession. It, thereby, continues “pluralist trade unionism” in conformity with the principles of “freedom” and “voluntarism”. Another amendment brought by the given law is that the conditions, which “establishers” were required to have in the past, are required the members of boards of management, supervisors and discipline to have as well. On the other hand, “workplace representatives of trade unions” are not required to have those conditions on the contrary of the law no. 2821. The conditions of “being a Turkish citizen”, “being literate in Turkish” and “acting in regarding sector”, which were mandatory to have for establishers of trade union and confederation before, are not required by the law 6356; “acting in regarding sector” is the only condition considered sufficient. According to the law, trade unions gain legal entity right after a “general assembly decision” with the “written statement” of establishers and delivering the establishment petition, which has an appendix of “trade union act”, to the governorship of where trade union is located. It is required to reach a “general assembly decision” in order to “affiliate to a higher institution” or “secede from a higher institution”. Trade unions are free to affiliate to or secede from international institutions in order to reach their “aims stated in their acts”. On the other hand, opening a representative branch and affiliation to the higher institutions by “international labour or employer associations” in Turkey is tied up to the permission of Ministry of Internal Affairs after getting a consideration from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Finally, the most important amendment about the management of trade unions in the law no. 6356 is to limit the title of at-largedelegate, which was tied up to the condition of “receiving document from the general president” or “elected by executive board” in the past, with only the “members of boards of management, supervisors and discipline”, who are elected to the mandatory bodies apart from general assembly. In the given law, it is stated the numbers of members of these boards cannot be “less than 3, more than 9”, numbers of members of board of management in confederations cannot be “less than 2, more than 5” and the numbers of members of bodies apart from general assembly in branches cannot be “less than 3, more than 5” and reserve members for these bodies will be as many as permanent members