With a recent change in the regulation regarding "the employment conditions of women workers in night shifts", employers were allowed to make women work for longer hours in night shifts. While the limit was 7.5 hours before the change, it is now legalized to extend the hours “by the consent of the worker”.
AKP’s woman minister of labour and social security, Jülide Sarıeroğlu, has signed another anti-labour regulation by adding women workers to the regulation allowing for the extension of working hours.
With a bag bill of 2015, an exception was made to the regulation limiting the night shifts with 7.5 hours. According to the bill, extending the limit was legalized in the case of the written consent of the workers, especially employed in tourism, private security service and health service sectors. The fact that workers are under pressure of unemployment, however, clearly turns the rule of getting the written consent of the workers into another mean for oppressing the workers in the workplace.
Since night shifts of women workers are regulated under a different regulation, women workers were not affected by the bill of 2015. However, the regulatory change regarding “the employment conditions of women workers in night shifts” that took effect on August 19, 2017, has levelled the women workers with men in their loss of rights.
OVERWORKING ENCOURAGED BY THE GOVERNMENT
The regulation extending women workers’ working hours in night shift was published in the same day with another anti-labour regulation. The latter regarding the working hours of the workers employed in shift works has increased the day shifts to 12 hours in tourism, health and private security services sectors. The commonality between the two is that the intensive conditions in the workplaces of these sectors are recognized and encouraged by the government.
MORE THAN ONE-THIRD OF YOUNG WOMEN ARE UNEMPLOYED
Described as part of the family, the woman is surrounded by a conservative identity and is shaped as a social character of an unorganized and cheap labour with her social responsibilities such as domestic responsibilities, child and elderly care. Under these conditions, the implication of the regulation on the increase of night shifts of women is clear: How is the woman oppressed at home oppressed once again in working life?
The AKP, which succeeded in increasing the exploitation, fails to increase women's employment. TEPAV Employment Monitoring Bulletin has shown that in 2016 women's employment has decreased by 40 thousand compared to the previous year. TURKSTAT data from May 2017 shows that young unemployment has been increasing. More than one-third of women with university degrees in the 15-24 age range are unemployed. This figure is 30 percent for vocational and technical high school graduates. The women's employment policies of the AKP bring women insecurity, unemployment and intensive exploitation.
The minister, Jülide Sarıeroğlu, who was appointed with the image that she worked in trade unions took steps to clarify her side against workers and women. In the HAK-İş Confederation, known for its commitment to the AKP, the minister, who holds the presidency of the Women's Committee and the affiliated union Öz Sağlık-İş, continues her duty in the AKP's ministerial position.
