The statement said that the weekend holiday regulation was one of the government's attempts to gradually abolish the current constitution. It was said that the adopted law violated Article 18 of the Constitution and Article 50, which regulates the right to rest, in the context of weekend holiday overtime pay and the prohibition of forced labor.
The Women's Platform for Equality said in a statement:
“Although this change is currently presented as being limited to the tourism and service sectors, employers in the construction sector and other employers are also demanding the same application. If this violation of rights is not stopped, the concept of the week, the right to weekly rest, and the constitutional prohibition of forced labor will be completely hollowed out.”
“We call on the CHP to take this law to the Constitutional Court”
“The relaxation of a right guaranteed by the Constitution and international agreements in this manner is a systematic devaluation of labor and human health,” said EŞİK, calling on the main opposition party CHP to take the law to the Constitutional Court.
The statement also referenced Article 14 of the ILO Convention, to which Turkey is a signatory, which states that “every worker is entitled to at least 24 consecutive hours of rest per week.”
“The right to a weekly holiday is not only about physical rest; it is also indispensable in terms of the right to life, healthy work, and a life befitting human dignity. This regulation, which allows for 10 consecutive days of work, limits the individual's right to rest and makes workers vulnerable to being forced to work continuously,” it said.
Women workers will be more affected
EŞİK stated in its statement that women will be more affected by the new regulation.
“Women workers who are heavily employed in the tourism and service sectors are among those who will be most affected by this regulation. For women who bear a double burden alongside their invisible domestic labor, the deprivation of the right to rest will create a multifaceted inequality that directly threatens their lives.”
You can access EŞİK's statement here.