Building Resilient and Care-Supportive Workplaces through Equality and Care

Care is essential to human well-being and social cohesion, yet it remains unevenly distributed and insufficiently recognized in the world of work. In Türkiye, differences in employment outcomes between women and men are closely associated with the unequal distribution of unpaid care responsibilities, limited access to affordable and quality care services, and the insufficient adoption of care-supportive workplace policies.

Women in Türkiye spend 4.6 times more time on unpaid care work than men, which continues to constrain their access to decent, formal, and sustainable employment. Women’s employment rate stands at 31.3 per cent, compared to 65.7 per cent for men, representing the widest employment gap among OECD countries. Nearly 10 million women remain outside the labour market primarily due to unpaid care responsibilities. Existing workplace practices—such as limited flexible work options, low uptake of care-related leave, and the absence of structured employer-supported care arrangements—further reinforce disparities in employment, wages, and career progression.

At the same time, Türkiye lacks a coherent and comprehensive framework to guide enterprises in developing and implementing care-supportive workplace policies that enable a more balanced sharing of care responsibilities among women and men. The absence of such a framework limits the capacity of workplaces to respond effectively to care-related needs and to support labour market participation, workforce continuity, and productivity.

Addressing care-related challenges in the world of work is firmly grounded in International Labour Standards. The ILO Resolution on Decent Work and the Care Economy, adopted by the International Labour Conference in 2024, calls on governments, employers, and workers to advance integrated and coherent care policies and systems based on the 5R Framework: recognizing, reducing, and redistributing unpaid care work, and rewarding and representing care workers. The Resolution emphasizes the role of workplaces in promoting work–life balance, equitable access to care-related leave, inclusive working-time arrangements, and social dialogue as core components of decent work and sustainable development.

These principles are anchored in a set of complementary ILO Conventions. Convention No. 156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities promotes equality of opportunity and treatment for workers with caregiving responsibilities. Convention No. 183 on Maternity Protection establishes minimum standards for maternity leave and employment protection. Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers addresses care work performed in households, while Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment contributes to safe and inclusive workplaces. In addition, Convention No. 100 on Equal Remuneration and Convention No. 111 on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) provide a foundational framework to address pay inequalities and discriminatory practices that may arise or be reinforced in contexts where care responsibilities affect employment outcomes. Together, these standards form a comprehensive normative basis for advancing care-supportive and equitable workplaces.

Investment in care policies and practices play a critical role in shaping labour market participation and enterprise performance. When care needs are effectively supported according to international labour standards, individuals are better able to enter, remain in, and contribute productively to paid work, supporting more resilient and sustainable workplaces.

Against this backdrop, Care@Work Türkiye responds to the need for practical, enterprise-level solutions that operationalize international labour standards at the workplace level. By supporting the development and pilot implementation of a Care-Supportive Workplace Model, the project provides employers with a structured evidence-based framework to strengthen work–life balance, promote equal opportunities for women and men, and improve productivity and retention, in line with International Labour Standards as well as other guidance including that appearing in the ILO Resolution on Decent Work and the Care Economy .

Care@Work 18-month pilot project is led by the ILO Office for Türkiye to support the development and implementation of care-supportive workplace practices in Türkiye. The project aims to strengthen enterprises’ capacity to design, adopt, and sustain workplace policies that promote work–life balance, equality, and decent work, in line with international labour standards and national policy frameworks.

Building on the ILO Gender Equality Model for Enterprises (GEME) in Türkiye and lessons learned from previous ILO–Sida cooperation, the project introduces a Care-Supportive Workplace Model tailored to the Türkiye context. Through pilot implementation, social dialogue, and knowledge-sharing, the project seeks to demonstrate scalable and sustainable approaches that benefit workers, enterprises, and society.

• Contextualization of the ILO Gender Equality Model for Enterprises (GEME) to support care in the workplace though engagement of pilot enterprises and social partners
• Implementation of the Care-Supportive Workplace Model in selected enterprises, including baseline assessments, equality and care action plans, capacity-building activities, and workplace policy development
• Documentation of lessons learned and good practices from the pilot phase
• Knowledge-sharing, communication, and policy dialogue activities to support replication and institutional uptake