Competition watchdog fines companies for making deal to obstruct labor mobility

Turkey's Competition Authority announced that it decided to fine 16 companies for "making gentleman's agreements" to stop hiring employees from each other.

Investigations have been carried out to determine whether some companies were involved in efforts to prevent employee turnover and to avoid recruitment of one company's employer by another, the competition watchdog said on Wednesday in a written statement.

It added:

"Deals made with the intention of refraining from attracting and hiring other companies' employees not only hinder mobility of labor, but may also prevent workers from receiving the real worth of their labor."

16 countries were fined a total of 151 million lira (approx. $5.5 million). Among them are Turkish Telecom, Vodafone Turkey, LC Waikiki (an Istanbul-based chain ready-to-wear fashion company with over 50,000 employees), Vivense House (the owner of a chain of furniture and decoration stores), Kocsistem, one of Turkey's oldest IT companies, and online market place Cicek Sepeti.