Experiences, perceptions and the strategies against the devaluation of the skilled labour of the Turkish pharmaceutical company employees in Turkey

Undoubtedly, globalization and neoliberal economic transformations are among the most discussed concepts in social sciences since the beginning of the 1990s. Although it is defined in many ways, globalization has emerged as a new phase of capitalism and has spread to every corner of the world, causing global transformations. The foremost aspect of this process, which has various dimensions, has been the global prevalence of the neoliberal market economy. Again, with the neoliberal economic policies that developed in this period, while it also provided the mobility and spread of capital on a global scale, it also deeply affected the relations between labor and capital. In addition, these policies replaced the production model that had developed since World War II, that is, the post Fordist model of production instead of the Fordist model. In other words, instead of a continuous, reliable mass production model, a discontinuous, unsecured, unorganized, highly stretched production model and workforce has emerged. This period was the period when the relative reconciliation between labour and capital, which emerged after World War II, broke down: first, the devaluation of blue-collar labour was soon followed by the transformation of white-collar labour. The precariatization process of skilled labour has been common in our country since the beginning of the 2000s. Based on the self-explanations of 'medical sales representatives' representing pharmaceutical companies, one of the leading actors of the global economy; It aimed to examine their strategies in the face of work experiences, perceptions, job security and the transformation of the profession. It is known that international companies operating in Turkey are the leading companies of the market in free market conditions. In this sense, Medical Sales Representatives, who are employees of the pharmaceutical industry, represent a sector where we can examine the changes in capital on labour power. Examining the effects of new working conditions on skilled labour on the axis of flexibility, insecurity and uncertainty are the areas of investigation that the study puts at the centre. In the study, in which the qualitative research method was used, in-depth interviews were conducted with thirty-four (n= 34) 'medical sales representatives' from different provinces and different companies. Field findings shows that, even in the period of all kinds of restrictions due to the pandemic, the authority and pressure of capital on skilled labour force in intense market competition and the anxiety created by job insecurity clearly show. The contents of how the sector manages this pressure and anxiety in its employees emerge in our findings. KEYWORDS: Medical Sales Representatives, Uncertainty, Flexibility, Insecurity Globalization, Pharmaceutical Company