Organization problems in the ready-to-wear retail sector in Turkey: A field research on sales consultants

Ready-to-wear retailing is one of the important sectors of Turkey in terms of macro-economic figures such as gross domestic product, share of manufacturing industry and industrial production, exports, net foreign exchange inflow relative to the economy, employment and investment. One of the biggest reasons for the rapid and effective progress of ready-made clothing production in Turkey is the prevalence of large and small licensed stores and their share of total employment. Thousands of young people work in this sector, regardless of their education level. Those young people who want to earn additional income for their household, cover various expenses while studying, cannot find a job in the field they graduated from, and want to advance within the company starting from the lowest level, work in stores as part or full-time sales opportunities or support activities. In this research, the working conditions, social rights, job security and unionization tendencies of sales consultants in Turkey will be evaluated within the data obtained using the quantitative research method. The research was conducted with sales consultants employed in the ready-made clothing industry and working in unionized and non-unionized workplaces. Within the scope of the research, an attempt will be made to reveal the worker profile in the ready-made clothing retailing sector by evaluating the working conditions of sales consultants as well as their unionization tendencies. The research will try to contribute to the development of new policies by unions by revealing both the working conditions of workers in the retail sector and their approaches and counter-attitudes towards organizing with the ever-changing technological change.