Draft Guidelines on Competition Violations in Labor Markets Opened for Public Opinion by the Turkish Competition Authority

The "Draft Guidelines on Competition Violations in Labour Markets" ("Draft"), the preparatory work of which has been completed by the Turkish Competition Authority ("Authority"), was opened for public opinion on the Authority's official website on 16.09.2024.

With the draft;

• The Competition Authority aims to ensure a healthy competitive environment in all markets in order to fulfill the duty to prevent monopolization and cartelization assigned to the state by Article 167 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey (“Constitution”). Article 167 of the Constitution aims to ensure a healthy competitive environment in all markets in order to fulfill the duty of preventing monopolization and cartelization assigned to the state by the provision of Article 167 of the Constitution, the General Justification of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition states that the basic expectations from the market economy are as follows; In the General Justification of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition, the main expectations from the market economy are; efficient use of resources, maximization of consumer welfare, realization of inclusive development by paving the way for innovation and technological developments, in order to realize these expectations, it is essential to establish competition in the markets for labor force, which is an important input in production, for this reason, an environment that will allow those who supply labor force and those who demand labor force to make independent decisions in line with market requirements should be established,
• In labor markets, employees and enterprises come together and the wages and other working conditions to be paid in return for labor are determined in proportion to the bargaining power of the parties; however, due to the above-mentioned characteristics of labor markets, there is a serious imbalance between the bargaining power of employers and the bargaining power of employees in favor of employers, and this imbalance is more pronounced in sectors with high concentration,
• On the other hand, the reaction of employees to changes in wages and other working conditions, in other words, the elasticity of supply in the labor markets, generally remains low,
• The Guidelines set out the basic principles regarding the assessment of the effects of such behaviors on labor markets in the identification and supervision of behaviors that lead to the prevention, distortion or restriction of competition in a way to affect the goods and services markets within the borders of the Republic of Turkey.

The Draft Guideline has been submitted to the public opinion of the Board and it has been stated that the opinions, suggestions and evaluations regarding the draft can be sent to the e-mail address isgucu@rekabet.gov.tr by 27.09.2024 by processing the attached opinion form.

You can reach the full text of the Draft here.

You can reach the Opinion Form here.

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-At-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr