The Effect of the European Court of Human Rights Judgements Changing in Turkish Constitutional Court’s Approach to Collective Actions

Abstract

Collective action constitutes the most effective and progressive power of workers to promote their economic and social interests. The collective action lies at the heart of the collective bargaining systems, illustrated by a common saying, “The right to collective bargaining without the right to take collective action is collective begging.” Türkiye, which is one of the member states of Council of Europe, has significantly influenced the development of European Court of Human Rights interpretation of the Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights and transformed the discourse on right to strike and collective action. This article focuses on deepening the understanding of how local disputes in Türkiye turn into regional and international case law, which returns to the national level and affects the national collective labour law system. Türkiye has one of the most restricted regulations on the right to strike, and there is no positive right to take collective action. This article tries to answer the question of how the European Court of Human Rights judgements has affected the Turkish Constitutional Court’s approach to collective actions, by using two recent cases.