Trade Union Rights of Public Servants in Turkey

The unionism and collective labour relations of public servants in Turkey have always contained problems in their structure. The most important thing that needs to be done to solve these problems following the requirements of the democratic society in a libertarian way is to bring the national legislation in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO) norms. With the adoption of Law No. 4688 in Turkey in 2001, significant steps have been taken until today in the direction of the development of the trade union rights of public servants. However, these are not enough. Trade union rights, which constitute an indispensable part of democratic society, particularly the right to free collective agreement, which includes the right to organise and strike, must be legally guaranteed in all aspects following the ILO norms. Therefore, with this study, which is based on the compliance of legal regulations for the unionism and collective labour relations of public servants in Turkey to the ILO norms, it is aimed to harmonize Turkish legislation with the ILO norms by examining the incompatibilities between them.