Only 5.7 percent of private-sector workers in Turkey are union members and a mere 4.2 percent are covered by collective bargaining agreements, according to a report by a labor confederation, which said official statistics overstate both rates.
The report, published by the Research Center of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK-AR), examined union membership, collective bargaining coverage and strike activity using official data.
The report said official nationwide figures obscure the much lower level of unionization in the private sector, where only 5.7 percent of 17.4 million workers were union members. It said higher unionization among public-sector workers masked the severity of the problem.
DİSK-AR said the Labor Ministry’s method for calculating collective bargaining coverage departs from international standards by including non-union workers who benefit from agreements by paying solidarity dues while excluding unregistered workers from the total workforce.
The confederation put nationwide collective bargaining coverage at 9.7 percent, compared with the ministry’s 12.7 percent. In the private sector, only 727,000 workers, or 4.2 percent, were covered by collective agreements, leaving about 96 percent without such coverage.
DİSK-AR also challenged the ministry’s official nationwide unionization rate of 13.8 percent, putting the rate at 13 percent after adding unregistered workers to the calculation in line with International Labour Organization (ILO) methodology. By its calculation, 16.3 million of Turkey’s 18.7 million workers, or 87 percent, were not union members.
Labor groups have long said that unregistered employment, anti-union dismissals and legal barriers to collective bargaining discourage workers from organizing. The ILO has repeatedly raised concerns about anti-union dismissals, collective bargaining thresholds, restrictions on strikes and inadequate protection of freedom of association in Turkey.
Turkish authorities maintain that workers enjoy constitutionally protected labor rights and that legal mechanisms exist to resolve labor conflicts.
The International Trade Union Confederation ranked Turkey among the world’s 10 worst countries for workers in its 2026 Global Rights Index, citing restrictions on strikes, union organizing and public protests.
