Tez-Koop-Is Union adopts a Union Policy Paper in line with ILO’s Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190)

Tez-Koop-Is Union leads other labour unions by creating and implementing a Union Policy Paper in line with C190 adopted by ILO in 2019 to prevent violence and harassment both across the union and at workplaces where it is organized.

Press release | 11 November 2022
The Turkish Union of Workers of Commerce, Cooperatives, Education, Office and Fine Arts (Tez-Koop-Is) adopted and put into force on 10 November 2022 the Union Policy Paper for Preventing Violence and Harassment created in the framework of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) to prevent violence and harassment in the world of work.

An affiliate of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TURK-IS), Tez-Koop-Is thereby became the first trade union to have ever drafted and implemented a Union Policy Paper in line with C190 adopted by ILO in 2019 to prevent violence and harassment both across the union and at workplaces where it is organized.

The Policy Paper was signed by President Haydar Özdemiroğlu on behalf of Tez-Koop-Is Central Executive Board at the headquarters of Tez-Koop-Is with the attendance of Ms. Ebru Özberk, Senior Programme Officer and Ms. Dr. Ayşe Emel Akalın Gender and Social Dialogue Officer of ILO Office for Türkiye and Ms. Canan Güllü, President of Federation of Women Associations of Turkey (TKDF).

Under the “More and Better Jobs for Women Programme”, the ILO Office for Türkiye provides training and carries out awareness-raising campaigns for social partners, private sector and civil society to have C190 ratified and develop policies and actions guided by C190 to prevent violence and harassment in the world of work.

ILO C190 strongly emphasizes that violence is a violation of human rights and threatens equal opportunities, and everyone has the right to work in an environment free of violence and harassment. C190 also recommends governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, other actors in the labour market to recognize the impact of domestic violence on the world of work, and develop mechanisms to alleviate such impacts.

Organized and active in a business sector where many women work and are under the risk of violence from customers in retail shops, Tez-Koop-Is Union has taken an important step forward to prevent violence and harassment against women at work.