TRANSPOSING THE EU GENDER EQUALITY NORMS INTO THE TURKISH LABOUR LAW: WHERE DO WE STAND?

Abstract

“Gender equality” emerging under the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination in the European Community (EC) law, currently, is one of the European Union's (EU) objectives to guarantee equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women. The EU policies on gender witnessed a long history dating back to the introduction of provisions with regard to equal opportunities policies in the founding treaties towards the acceptance of a recently and commonly agreed approach of “gender mainstreaming”. This corresponds to a process of which the initial and limited aim of increasing participation of women to labour market paved the way to the adoption of gender equality perspective in all activities of the EU. Turkey, as a candidate country for full membership to the EU undertakes the obligation of transposing the EU norms of gender equality into its domestic law. This study, after providing a detailed examination of the EU acquis communautaire on gender equality, focuses on the relevant provisions of the Turkish Labour Law. Therefore, the emphasis will be put on the assessment of the harmonization process of national laws and practices. The paper is concluded with an analysis of some lacking points in the Turkish Labour Law. The harmonization process of Turkish laws will correspond to a period in which the gender aspect of Turkish economic and social policies will need to be integrated with those policies of the EU through a strong awareness raising of citizens and key economic and social players on gender policies.

Keywords

• Gender Equality, Equal Treatment, Non-discrimination, EC

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