UN Joint Programme on “Harnessing Sustainable Linkages for the SMEs in Turkey’s Textile Sector” ended in December 2012

UN Joint Programme on “Harnessing Sustainable Linkages for the SMEs in Turkey’s Textile Sector” implemented in cooperation with İTKİB (İstanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters’ Associations) has come to a close with a final conference held in the Conference Hall of Foreign Trade Complex in İstanbul on 19 December 2012. In the opening speeches delivered by Shahid Najam, UN Resident Coordinator in Turkey; Hikmet Tanrıverdi, İHKİB (İstanbul Garment and Apparel Exporters’ Association) Chairman of the Board; Süleyman Yilmaz, UNIDO Director of the Centre for Regional Cooperation, and Ümit Deniz Efendioğlu, Director of ILO Office for Turkey; the role of the private sector and social partners in promoting a sustainable economic and human development was emphasized in the context of corporate social responsibility. Moreover, participant firms’ representatives shared their feedback on the contributions of the Joint Programme and their views on the importance of labour and environmental standards. As part of the Joint Programme, a series of training programmes for workers were organized by the ILO Office for Turkey in Malatya, Adıyaman, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş. More than 1700 workers benefited from these training programmes, which focused on workplace cooperation and communication; women’s human rights, mobbing and sexual harassment at work; labour rights; and occupational health and safety. These training programmes were also re-designed as e-learning modules and were published on Style Turkish website http://www.styleturkish.com for the use of textile firms and workers. Training programmes were also designed and delivered to employers addressing human resource management and workplace cooperation; employers’ obligations based on labour laws; and occupational health and safety. 290 employers participated in these training programmes. Booklets were prepared by the ILO Office for Turkey and the Labour Inspection Board of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security on workplace cooperation and communication, gender-based violence at work, women workers’ rights, working hours and wages, resting rights of workers and special working conditions for young and child workers in the Labour Law. More than 1500 booklets on each topic were distributed to the trainees. A report entitled “Women Workers and the Textile Sector in Turkey: The Case of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Malatya and Adıyaman” was shared with all relevant stakeholders, which analyzed women’s employment in the textile sector and proposed measures to enhance decent work opportunities for women. Additionally, a short movie was produced on “Decent Work in Textile and Garment Sector” to demonstrate best practices in this field and build awareness on workers’ rights and was first screened at the final conference. CDs of the movie were distributed to the trainees and were shared with the textile firms.