Brussels. October 13 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): The government frequently uses police to attack and beat up trade unionists, according to a new report issued by the ICFTU today, and prepared further to consultations with the ICFTU's Turkish affiliates.

The report on the Turkish government's observance of labour standards, which is being issued to complement the World Trade Organisation's trade policy review, says that Turkey's respect for many labour rights is poor, despite strong and persistent criticism from the United Nations' body the International Labour organisation, and that much of its legislation dates from Turkey's military dictatorship.

The report says that between 1992 and 1996, the authorities and security forces intervened frequently to support employers during union campaigns and strikes, sometimes sending in government forces to violently attack trade unionists. Between 1996 and 1998 a staggering 40,000 trade unionists were sacked for becoming members of trade unions affiliated to DISK, a Turkish trade union centre, and the courts failed to provide any protection against anti-union discrimination. Recently workers at the Bursa factory of the multinational company, Siemens, were sacked, when the employers tried to force them to resign their trade union membership.

At the beginning of this year, public employees held a demonstration outside parliament to protest at a new bill, which contained many prohibitions on public employees' rights to bargain collectively, or to strike. The police attacked the demonstrators so violently with water cannons, tear gas and truncheons, that thirty workers had to go to hospital. Following this, many members of the transport union were arrested.

Turkey is trying to entice foreign investors and promote exports by promising that its 10 free trade zones, will be strike free for the first ten years of operation, as new legislation bans strikes inside the zones. In other areas, too, strikes are banned outright - for example in banking, transport, exploration, and in the distribution of water, gas, electricity, coal, natural gas and petroleum, in clear violation of the internationally adopted standards concerning trade union rights.

According to the report, there is major repression of workers in Turkey's south-east region, where the majority of workers are Kurdish. For example, the municipal and general workers' union, Belediye-Is, in Diyarbakir, has said that it is impossible to enforce any labour rights in the region. Wages are paid late and union and workers are sacked and harassed for demanding their rights. A number of trade unionists in the area have been abducted.

Although it is not clear to what extent the problems concerning trade union rights are linked to issues of Kurdish identity, it appears that local mayors are using the 1991 Anti-Terror Act, originally brought in to contain Kurdish activities, against trade unionists in the region. There have been a large number of cases where trade unionists in the region have been violently arrested, and tortured.

Halil Cabir Karacadagli, President of the Diyarbakir branch of the energy, water and gas union was detained and tortured, at the end of 1996, when police tried to force him into being an informer, and in May 1997, Haydar Kilicoglu, president of the Diyarbakir branch of the teachers union, and other union members were detained, and the union's offices raided. Under emergency legislation, detainees can be held for 30 without access to a lawyer, and torture in detention is routine.

In February 1998, 20 public employees were banished to various cities, and the authorities are also using the legislation to stop any union activities taking place in Dijarbakir, Asdiyaman, Siirt and Agri.

Women are discriminated against as workers in Turkey, and a large percentage of them who are employed in agriculture, in restaurants and hotel sectors, tend to do so as unpaid family help. Out of Turkey's 151,000 managerial employees, only 11,000 are women. This is not very surprising, says the ICFTU in a country where traditional family values in rural areas place a greater emphasis on education for boys, many girls do not complete primary school and the literacy rate for women is 71% compared to 91% for men.

Child labour is a serious problem in Turkey, and there are signs that it is used in the production of export goods such as shoes, which are produced in the informal sector, where the majority of child workers are found. While there are laws prohibiting the employment of children, these laws are only enforced in the formal industrial sector.

According to trade union research, 32 out of every 100 workers are aged between 6 and 19. There are 3.5million people aged between 12 and 19 working, and almost half of them are under the age of 16. Children employed at work sites and homes constitute 5% of the total working population, and most are employed in the metal, shoe, woodworking and agricultural sectors.

The government is now working with the ILO to stamp out child labour, and the Turkish Ministry of Labour is working with the trade union centres Turk-Is, DISK and KESK and the Turkish employers Association to solve the problem, with a labelling system scheduled for implementation in 1998.

The ICFTU concludes its report saying that there are continual violations of trade union rights, and that the government of Turkey should take urgent action to change the law, and to address the way it is being abused by employers. It also says that there should be a comprehensive reform of the local administration in South East Turkey to ensure that labour rights are fully respected and there is no discrimination. In the area of child labour the government needs to step up its inspections system to ensure that children are in school.

The ICFTU says that the WTO should draw the Turkish government's attention to the commitments it made to observe core labour standards at the WTO's ministerial conferences.