Changing collective agreement scheme and Turkey

Collective bargaining and so collective agreements have been institutionalized as a rule-making method in order to maintain and improve the employment and working conditions of workers. In the era of neoliberal restructuring of capitalism, trade unions and collective agreements are viewed to be 'rigidities' in the labour market that restrict economic growth and impair competitiveness. So the content and function of collective agreements have been changing or tried to be transformed to deliver the flexibility requirements and strategies of employers. In this study, main developments, patterns and trends in national collective agreements systems and in Turkey since the year 1980 were examined in the three dimension including the security of collective agreements, the level of collective bargaining, and the degree of benefit from collective agreements.