Violation Of Freedom Of Work And Labor
The Crime and Punishment of Violation of Freedom of Work and Labor is regulated in Article 117 of the Turkish Penal Code. In our Constitution, the right to work is among the fundamental rights. Accordingly, the Turkish Criminal Code has also included the crime of Violation of Freedom of Work and Labor under the title of “Crimes Against Freedom”.
The person who violates the freedom of work and labor by using force or threat or other unlawful behavior will be punished according to the provisions of the prevention of the right to work if the victim complains. Here, if the crime of obstruction of the right to work is committed, the complaint is a condition for the opening of investigation and prosecution and constitutes the reasoning condition of the crime.
If the person’s helplessness, orphanhood or attachment to his/her work causes him/her to work for free by exploitation, or if there is a clear disproportion between the service he/she provides and the wage he/she receives, the person who causes these working and housing conditions that are unworthy of human dignity will commit the crime of violation of the freedom of work and work. The aforementioned crime occurs even with the consent of the persons working under these conditions.
The same penalty will be imposed on those who exploit the person’s helplessness, orphanhood or loyalty to their work and make them work for free, or in cases where there is a clear difference between their work and the wage they receive, those who cause these people to fall into the situations we have mentioned, those who supply or transfer or transfer them from one place to another.
Finally, the person who, by using force or threats, forces the worker or his/her employers to reduce or increase wages or to accept agreements under conditions other than those previously accepted, or who causes a work to stop, end or continue to stop, is considered to have committed the crime of violation of freedom of work and labor and will be punished according to the relevant provisions.
The qualified forms of the crime of obstruction of freedom of work and labor are specified in Article 119 of the TPC. Apart from those listed, if the aggravated forms of the crime of intentional injury occur during the obstruction of the right to work, the provisions regarding the crime of intentional injury are also applied. In other words, if the aggravated consequences of the crime of intentional injury occur, the person who commits this crime will be punished both for the crime of intentional injury and for the crime of obstruction of freedom of work and work.