Agencies demand legalization of temporary employment

In 2003 the government enacted Labor Law No. 4857, which authorized the establishment of private employment agencies that could act as intermediaries between employers and workers. “The draft law also had a provision regulating temporary employment, but right before Parliament voted on the law, this provision was removed,” Melek Onaran Yüksel, a partner in the YükselKarkinKüçük law firm, which specializes in labor and social security law, said to Sunday’s Zaman.

Despite the removal of this provision, which would grant private employment agencies the right to employ workers and then hire them out to third-party companies for temporary terms, this is still common practice in Turkey. According to a prominent legal source familiar with the topic, many agencies, especially international firms, have been operating in Turkey as temporary employment bureaus since 2003, even though this is -- strictly speaking -- illegal. “They are registered as agencies that provide human resources and consultancy services, acting as intermediaries and assisting companies with recruitment. But they also employ workers and hire them out to other companies for temporary terms. These workers are on the agencies’ payroll, even though they work for another company, and there is no legal basis for this in Turkey. Still the agencies have been doing this for the past 15 years,” the source said to Sunday’s Zaman.

According to the same source, the government is aware of the situation but turns a blind eye because of the economic benefits the agencies bring: “The government knows that these agencies operate in Turkey, providing temporary employment services. If the Turkish Employment Organization [İŞKUR] really wanted to act against the agencies, they could. But they don’t because it is a big source of foreign investment, as many of the agencies are international firms.” Furthermore, the source mentioned that the authorities also realize that there is a commercial need for private employment services in today’s labor market.

İŞKUR was not available to comment on the issue.

Labor unions opposed

Currently, there are a total of 276 private employment agencies licensed by İŞKUR operating in Turkey, of which 186 are based in İstanbul. The agencies comprise both big international firms as well as many Turkish companies.

Asked to comment on the claim that private employment agencies in Turkey provide temporary employment services without a legal basis, Altuğ Yaka, vice president of the Turkish Association of Private Employment Agencies (ÖİBD), preferred not to go into detail. “It’s too early to comment on this issue. However, I can say that the current license system allows agencies only to offer recruitment services, supplying companies with candidates for openings they have. According to the law, there is no license yet for providing temporary employment services,” Yaka said to Sunday’s Zaman.

The government seems to be willing to regulate the current legislative gray zone in which private employment agencies operate. Last July, there was an attempt to pass a bill on the employment law, which would give special employment bureaus at long last the right to hire workers out to employers for temporary terms, but it was vetoed by the President Abdullah Gül. Although the government was trying to pass this regulation to increase the level of employment, labor unions fiercely opposed the system, stressing that it would allow the exploitation of workers and cause unrest in the workplace. Some union representatives went even further, suggesting the bill could bring slavery back. Following this harsh criticism, the government revised the bill and completely removed the controversial article, after which it was approved by President Gül in mid-August.

Although the ÖİBD and the labor unions are on opposite sides of the table when it comes to temporary employment, Yaka is convinced that they can find a common ground on which to collaborate: “We want to make it clear to the labor unions that we are in the same boat and we can work together, as is happening in many European countries. As private employment agencies we would also like to create extra jobs and tackle unemployment. After all, what is better: to have a temporary job or remain unemployed? I think the answer to that is easy.”

Court cases

However, because there is still no legal basis for temporary employment in Turkey, employees involved in this type of scheme are open to different forms of exploitation. “The workers usually don’t get the same working conditions and benefits as the people who are on the company’s payroll. There is no equal treatment on the work floor,” Yüksel said.

According to Yüksel, there have been a number of cases when employees involved in temporary employment schemes went to court and won their case. “It has occurred that people who are on the payroll of a private employment agency but de facto work in another company are fired and take both the company and the agency to labor court, claiming that they were fired by the agency while the company was in effect their principal employer. The court always rules in their favor.”

Contrary to Turkey, it is in most developed and developing countries completely legal for temporary employment agencies to operate and hire out employees for temporary work. According to the most recent data of the European Confederation of Private Employment Enterprises (Euro CIETT), over 9.5 million agency workers in full-time equivalents were employed across the world in 2008, making the agency work industry one of the largest private employers. There are 71.000 private employment agencies worldwide, amounting to total sales revenues of 232 billion euros.

Widespread system in EU

Especially in the EU, where 48 percent of total worldwide sales revenues in the sector are generated, it is a widespread system. “Because temporary employment is legal in those countries, the conditions and provisions for it are very well regulated. That is why the exploitation of temporary workers is much less of an issue there,” Yüksel said. “Because Turkey is in the process of EU accession, we also have to harmonize our labor laws with the union’s regulations. That is another reason why the government wanted to legalize temporary employment schemes,” Yüksel added.

According to Yaka, a law regulating temporary employment could be an important tool in lowering Turkey’s record unemployment rate: “There are other countries, like Poland, where this has been the case. Since the introduction of a law on temporary employment agencies in 2003, the Polish unemployment rate went down from 20 percent in 2002 to 15 percent in 2006, largely thanks to temporary employment. That’s why we are lobbying the government non-stop to regulate the industry.”

If a law regulating temporary employment were to pass, Yaka also sees huge potential for the private employment industry in Turkey. He gives the example of Randstad, the Dutch-based company whose Turkish operations he heads: “Before 2004 there was a very strict law on temporary employment in Germany. After that law changed to a more liberal one, Randstad Germany grew from 30 branches to over 550 branches today, with more than 2 billion euros in turnover. Big growth is also possible in Turkey.”