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is no longer a prejudicial issue in the competence disputes. This change
was done in order to overcome the problems faced by the unions in the
determination of competence. Procedures of becoming a member to
unions and resigning from the unions are no longer subjected to nota-
rization. Moreover, the number of documents required in the establish-
ment of unions is reduced and the declaration of the founders is taken
as a basis. The restrictions made in the organization of the activities of
unions within the Law numbered 2821 were removed and the authori-
ty regarding the organization of the activities is left to the organs of the
unions or to their bylaws.
The law re-regulates the free collective bargaining regime and the
right to conclude collective bargaining agreements, on the basis of a
free and democratic society pursuant to the reaction given to interna-
tional norms by the Turkish business life. In this section, new regula-
tions with respect to collective bargaining regime are brought, espe-
cially concerning the resolution of labor disputes. While regulating
these issues, ILO Convention No.87 and 98 and the norms of the
European Union are taken into consideration. In the preparation of the
Law, demands of the parties, judicial precedents and criticisms in the
doctrine were taken into account as well. Therefore, in this section of
the Law, substantial amendments are made at the right of concluding
collective bargaining agreement, strike and lock-out. The group col-
lective bargaining agreement, which had found an application area
with the case law before, is defined in the new Law and its scope of
application is widened. Therefore, now, it is possible to sign collective
bargaining agreement with more than one party in a line of business.
The matter of multiple collective bargaining agreements arising with
the transferring of a workplace to another employer, that occupied the
judiciary mostly, is re-regulated. This issue was regulated in order to
resolve the problems in determining the agreement which shall apply
in cases where more than one collective bargaining agreement
emerges.
Under this purpose, the line of business threshold, which continu-
ously brought Turkey to the agenda of the ILO, is decreased to 3%. The
principle requiring for more than half of the employees of a workplace
to be member to the union is preserved, however, with respect to enter-
prises, the threshold is decreased to 40%. Besides, competence, nego-
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NEWSLETTER 2012