January 2015 2014 Annual Review of Labour Relations and Social Dialogue in South East Europe: Turkey By Dr. Utku Balaban 1 Content  Summary  Socio-economic developments  Governmental policies and legislation  Industrial relations  Tripartite social dialogue  Forecasts Annex- Information about:  Collective bargaining, social dialogue, social security, education& vocational train­ing, employment, wages  Trade unions and employer organizations © Friedrich -Ebert-Stiftung Regional Project for Labour Relations and Social Dialogue in South East Europe Kapetan Misina 5a Belgrade, Serbia E-Mail: fes@fessoe.de Internet: www.fessoe.de The text is available online: www.fesmoe.eu The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Friedrich-Ebert­Stiftung or of the organization for which the author works. 1. Summary Turkey is an EU candidate that had faster growth rates within the last decade than the EU members as well as a younger workforce. Labor relations in Turkey can be at best defined as chaotic given the high share of informal employment. The union density de­creased much faster than other European and OECD countries and Turkey has the lowest values within those two entities Union membership stagnated in recent years and pro-government union confederations managed to expand their membership at the expense of the others. The government has problematic relations with the unions 1 I would like to thank Onur Bak ır for his insightful comments during the preparation of this report.