A recent OECD study comparing different countries with regard to working hours shows that Turkey ranks first in the list with the longest working hours.
People working 50 hours or more in Turkey constitutes 43 percent of the population, Business HT reports. According to the OECD report, Mexico with 28.8 percent and South Korea with 27.1 percent follows Turkey, whose performance in “work-life balance” is the worst.
The report reveals that employed people in Turkey works four more hours in average than the legal working hours determined as 45 hours weekly.
Employers in Turkey are able to divide the weekly working hours, 45 hours, into daily hours at their will. Meal or tea breaks are not counted in working hours.
IMPOSING OVERWORK
Conditions for overwork are defined in the Turkish Labor Act. One of these conditions is that worker’s consent is required for normal overwork. However, related regulations help capitalists overcome this problem. According to the regulations, “employers in need of overwork can take workers’ consent at the beginning of each year”. This returns as obligatory to the workers, because workers usually have to accept to overwork right after getting their jobs and have to overwork in order not to losing their jobs.
