Trade unions at a hotel: how authority is determined and what a workplace union representative may do

In Türkiye, a union earns the right to sign a collective agreement at a hotel through an authority determination (yetki tespiti): it applies to the Ministry under Article 42 of Law No. 6356, the Ministry checks membership records and issues the decision. The union appoints workplace union representatives to represent its members at the workplace, and those representatives work under the protections of Article 27.

A determination letter arrives at the hotel, names a union and a workplace, and asks nothing of the general manager except a date on the calendar. What happens in the weeks that follow usually decides whether the process stays routine or becomes a case file. This article explains the process as an employer meets it: how a trade union at a hotel in Türkiye obtains authority, what the determination means, who the workplace union representative is, and what management should do in the first week.

Why do trade unions reach hotels that never expected them?#

Hotels meet union questions through their structure, not through politics: seasonal headcount, many small departments and often more than one employer on one site.

A hotel is a set of small units: front desk, housekeeping, kitchen, restaurant and bar, spa, maintenance. Each has its own shift pattern, and each is where a membership question first appears. The legal unit, however, is the workplace (işyeri), which follows the employer's establishment structure, not the department chart. A management company, a separate food and beverage company and a spa operator on the same property can be different workplaces with different employers.

The number of workers at the workplace matters twice: for the authority check and for how many representatives the union may later appoint under Article 27. Seasonal hiring changes the headcount through the year, so the date of any count matters. Your social security declarations are the record that will be compared, which is a reason to keep them accurate all season rather than in a hurry. If you hire seasonal staff, the contracts and social security entries you make at the start of the season are what a later check will read; see our guide to hiring seasonal staff at a hotel.

A union application changes none of the hotel's ordinary duties: rosters, wages, health and safety, guest service and the night audit continue exactly as before. The employer's exposure is procedural. The risk sits in procedure: a late document, a wrong workplace number or an improvised answer costs more than disagreement itself.

How is a union's authority to conclude a collective agreement determined?#

The union applies to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which checks membership records for that workplace and issues a determination of authority (yetki tespiti). An employer union or a non-member employer may apply for the same determination.

Under Article 42 of Law No. 6356, a worker union that wants to conclude a collective agreement applies to the Ministry to have its authority determined (Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, Law No. 6356, Article 42 (opens in a new tab), 2026-11-12). The same article lets an employer union, or an employer that is not a member of an employer union, apply to the Ministry to have the authorised worker union determined.

The Ministry works from records: the union's membership file on one side, the workplace and its workers on the other. It is a documentary check, not a hearing and not a mediation. The output is a determination: a document naming the workplace and the union found to have authority there. It is a snapshot at a date, not a permanent status.

The employer's part is small and precise: confirm the workplace identity, give an accurate worker list if asked, and name one person who answers the Ministry and signs the reply. If the hotel is several legal entities, settle the workplace question first. A determination issued for the wrong workplace number helps nobody and costs weeks to untangle.

What does the employer receive, and what can it do about it?#

The employer receives a determination naming the workplace and the union, and from that moment the clock runs: the document must be dated, filed and checked against the hotel's own records before anything else is decided.

Record the arrival date and the person who received it, whether it came by post, by hand or by electronic notification. Note the arrival date and the person who received it, so that any period the law sets can be counted from a date you can prove; your labour lawyer confirms which periods apply. Check three things against your own records: the workplace identity (address and social security workplace number), the worker count used, and the union's name.

If the hotel disagrees with the determination, that is a legal question with a time limit; ask a labour lawyer to confirm the current position before the date passes. A missed window closes the argument whatever its merits. Objection is a legal step taken by the employer on the records, not an HR campaign: staff are not asked for views, signatures or information about membership.

Until the matter is settled, keep every management decision ordinary and documented. Rosters, warnings, overtime and shift changes go ahead on their operational reasons, written down when they are decided. File the determination with the collective agreement documents so that the next manager inherits the history rather than reconstructing it.

Who is the workplace union representative and what may they do?#

The workplace union representative (işyeri sendika temsilcisi) is appointed by the union whose authority is final, from among its members working at that workplace, and the maximum number depends on the number of workers.

Under Article 27 of Law No. 6356, the union appoints workplace representatives from among its members working at the workplace, and the article sets out their status and protection (Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, Law No. 6356, Article 27 (opens in a new tab), 2026-11-12). The number of representatives follows the union's own regulations and cannot exceed the number of its members in that workplace.

The employer does not appoint, approve or veto the representative. The union does. The hotel's role is to recognise the status and deal with the person the union has named. The representative is not a staff committee, a works council or a spokesperson elected by the whole team. Treating them as one creates a dispute where none existed. They carry the collective agreement and members' issues into the workplace, and they remain employees with their own job, roster and duties.

The law attaches special consequences to the representative's position. Anything that touches their employment should go through your legal adviser before it happens, not afterwards. Most day-to-day contact is ordinary: rosters, night shifts, overtime and leave. Working time and the balancing period are covered separately in our guide to working hours in hotels.

What should management do in the first week?#

One voice, one dated file, no pressure on staff, and no change to normal management that cannot be explained by an operational reason written down at the time.

Name one contact. The general manager or the HR lead answers the Ministry, the union and the department heads; everyone else forwards. Open a dated file: the determination and its envelope or notification, the workplace records you checked, and every letter, email and note in and out.

Brief department heads on one page: who the representative is, that they are an employee with a legal role, that nobody asks staff about membership, and that rosters and discipline continue as normal and are documented. Answer information requests in writing, within the time asked, with records rather than opinions. If something cannot be answered yet, say when it will be.

Keep normal decisions normal. If a shift change or a warning is due, decide it on its documented operational reason and write that reason down at the time, not later. Our guide to staff warnings in a hotel covers what makes a warning hold up. Do not survey staff, do not hold information meetings about the union, and do not offer or withdraw anything because of membership. Write minutes after every meeting with the representative, send them the same day, and keep the version they replied to.

Which mistakes turn a routine determination into a dispute?#

Mistakes of timing and paperwork, not disagreements about principle: a supervisor asking who joined, a shift moved without a written reason, or two managers saying different things.

A union's case is built from the hotel's own documents and dates, so an undocumented decision is the most expensive thing a manager can make. Pressure is rarely dramatic. A question from a supervisor about membership, a hint about next season's contract, or a sudden change of department is enough to be read as retaliation. Inconsistency between departments is evidence: two managers answering the same question differently is worse than one manager answering slowly.

The workplace identity error runs through everything: a wrong employer or workplace number invalidates paperwork that was otherwise correct. Conduct questions involving staff, including pressure and exclusion, belong in the hotel's existing policy routes, such as the mobbing policy, rather than in an improvised conversation.

What to do next#

This week, name one person who answers and open one dated file: the determination, the workplace records you checked, and every letter in and out. Then take that file to a lawyer who does labour work before any objection period runs out, because the rest of the process, the collective agreement and the representative's role, will be read against the dates you set now.