OUTSOURCING IN
TURKEY
Selim Cetmen
Mert Özcömert
Halit Yaren
Çağatay Yıldız
OUTLINE
Definion and Some Preliminary Remarks
 Historical Data
 Advantages and Disadvantages
 Statistical Data
 A Survey by Hak-İş Union Confederation
 References

DEFINITION
Outsourcing is the
act of transferring a
business process to an
external provider
It enables a company
to focus its efforts on
its core
competencies
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
There is a subtle difference between outsourcing and
subcontracting around
 Whether the task can be done internally
 Hiring company’s control
Subcontracting is an older term that traditionally refers to the
practice of hiring an outside company to perform a task that
cannot be handled internally
Outsourcing is relatively new strategy
Processes that could be performed internally
Provider company has full control over the task
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
But in this presentation we use them
interchangeably
We mainly focus on the outsourcing of labor
process (subcontracted worker = taşeron işçi)
PROLIFERATION OF OUTSOURCING IN
THE WORLD
Questioning of typical employment and search for
flexibility during mid-1970s
In 1990s it was commonly adopted strategy over
the world
PROLIFERATION OF OUTSOURCING IN
THE WORLD


Factors leading to outsourcing by 1990s
Shift from Fordism to flexible production in line
with globalization
-Rapid technological advancements
-States moving along neoliberal lines
ADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING
Lower cost
 Save cost by decreasing operational and
labor costs
 Focusing on core business activities
 Effective use of internal source by
delegating time consuming processes to
external agencies
 Access to resources not available internally

ADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING
Delegating responsibilities
 Decrease risk by delegating difficult to
manage responsibilities to external
agencies
 Gain access to new market areas
 The point of production or service
delivery closer to end users
 The benefits of re-engineering
 Make companies more flexible

DISADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING
For Employers
Loss Of Managerial Control
Threat to Security and Confidentiality
Quality Problems
Tied to the Financial Well-Being of Another
Company
Conflict between companies’ cultures
DISADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING

For Employees
 Paid Vacation
 Job security
 Severance pay
 Salary Problem
 Deprivation of Collective Rights
SUBCONTRACTING IN TURKEY

Subcontracting has been systematically increasing
since 2002.
SUBCONTRACING IN THE PUBLIC

In the Public, subcontracting has grown up specially
in the health sector
SUBCONTRACTING IN THE PUBLIC

Significant part of Public’s subcontracted workers
consists of heath sector workers.
MINING AND ENERGY SECTORS

Working accidents in the mining
COMPARING TURKEY WITH CHINA AND
USA
OUTSOURCING SURVEY BY HAKİŞ CONFEDERATION
The truth of outsourcing in Turkey
SCOPE OF THE SURVEY
9 sectors, 27 city, 85 workplace
 5250 public subcontracted labour
 52 questions are asked
 Completed in 4 months
 Published in 2014
 What do ‘they’ think?

I-DEMOGRAPHIC DATA
Average age of the sample is similar to the
average age of the labours of private sector
 80% men – 20% women
 87% married – 8.4% single – 4.3% widowed
 24.5% of them have 3 or more children
 Educational level: only 11.2% of the
subcontracted labors are graduated from a
university

EDUCATIONAL LEVEL
NET INCOME
•Half of ‘them’ have to live with an income
under 1000 TL
•Only 1% of ‘them’ earn more than 2000 TL
SECTORAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE SURVEY
II-OUTSOURCING PROBLEM AND THE
PERCEPTION OF UNIONIZATION
WHY IS THERE OUTSOURCING: CHEAP
LABOR POWER!
WHAT DO ‘THEY’ THINK ABOUT THE
UNIONS?
They want more unionization
 They are forced not to join unions by the threats of
their employers
 Their biggest problem is ‘being a staff’, and they
believe that unionization helps to make it real
 More than 70% of them think that they do not have a
guarantee on their income and this is because of the
low unionization rate

DO THEY GET OVERTIME PAYMENT?
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
They cannot get overtime pay – 73,6%
 They cannot get severance pay – 78,8%
 They cannot get their income in time – 67,6%

JOB SECURITY AND LEGAL RIGHTS








They do not think that they have enough job security –
71,2%
They think that they will be more secure if they join
staff - 83,2%
Almost half of them think that they cannot benefit from
the protection of the social security system
They think that outsourcing laws are not enforced
properly – 67,9%
Moreover, they believe that legislative regulations are
preventing subcontracted labor to use their legal rights
– 77,8%
Most of them believe that they get fired if they attempt
to use their union rights – 81,7%
They even believe that labor unions do not pay enough
attention to the problems of subcontracted labor –
75,8%
80,8% of them believe that legislative regulations are
not enforced.
WORKING CONDITIONS







83% of them believe that they do not have a
particular job – “Ne iş olsa yaparız abi!”
They also believe that they are employed for
different type of works than specified at the
beginning
Uncertainties in their job definitions make
impossible for them to be specialised in a particular
job
Subcontracted labor and staff division problems
Subcontracted labors work more than staff
Subcontracted labors work in worse conditions than
staff
Almost all of the subcontracted labors believe that
there is a discrimination against them by their
supervisors.
REMARKABLE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY







Only 11,2% of subcontracted labours are graduated
from a university
Half of them earn less than 1000TL and only
Less than 1% of them earn 2000TL
Job security, joining to a union, severance payment
are their biggest problems
They believe that unionization is the solution,
because they think that even the legislative
regulations are not enforced without a union
Labor payments in health sector, in which women
are mostly employed, are less than payments in
municipal corporations
In reverse, municipal corporations employs more
uneducated subcontracted labors than health sector
GENDER DISTRIBUTION
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL DISTRIBUTION
INCOME LEVEL DISTRIBUTION
REFERENCES

Taşeron İşçisi Gerçeği Araştırması (2014)
- Hak-İş Union Confederation
İnsan Kaynaklarında Outsourcing-Türkiye
Örneği
 Disk Araştırması – Türkiye’de taşeronlaşmanın
boyutları – Serkan Öngel
 Alt İşverenlik El Kitabı – Deniz Ersöz
