ILO Launches Care@Work Türkiye to Promote Equality and Care-Supportive Workplaces

Despite growing evidence from GEME and international experience, employer awareness of the benefits of care-responsive policies remains limited.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for Türkiye has launched a new initiative titled “Care@Work Türkiye: Building Resilient and Care-Supportive Workplaces through Equality and Care”, aimed at advancing equality, social justice and decent work by helping enterprises better recognise and respond to workers’ paid work and unpaid care responsibilities.

Funded by the Government of Sweden, the 18-month project seeks to foster inclusive, resilient and care-supportive workplaces, contributing to a more equitable and sustainable labour market across Türkiye. The initiative responds to persistent gender inequalities in the world of work, particularly the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work carried by women.

At the heart of the project is the Care-Supportive Workplace Model, a new rights-based framework designed to help enterprises identify, reduce and better manage the interaction between workplace demands and employees’ care responsibilities. According to Yasser Hassan, Director of the ILO Office for Türkiye, the model builds on the proven success of the ILO Gender Equality Model for Enterprises (GEME), which has already demonstrated the value of structured equality policies, institutional mechanisms, capacity-building and behaviour-change approaches in Turkish workplaces.

Hassan noted that the new model expands the GEME framework by incorporating a strong care responsibility dimension, encouraging enterprises to integrate care considerations into human resource policies, organisational systems and workplace cultures. He emphasised that care-responsive workplaces are essential for improving productivity, workforce retention and long-term resilience.

The initiative is closely aligned with key International Labour Standards, including Convention No. 100 (Equal Remuneration), Convention No. 111 (Discrimination), Convention No. 156 (Workers with Family Responsibilities) and Convention No. 190 (Violence and Harassment). It also reflects the ILO’s longstanding commitment to gender equality and human-centred work environments.

The project was formally launched with the signing of the project document by Yasser Hassan and Swedish Ambassador to Türkiye Malena Mård. Ambassador Mård highlighted Sweden’s belief in balancing work, family and community life, stating that care-supportive workplaces empower employees, enhance productivity and reflect shared human-centred values between Sweden and Türkiye.

Despite growing evidence from GEME and international experience, employer awareness of the benefits of care-responsive policies remains limited. In Türkiye, women continue to shoulder a significantly larger share of unpaid care work, which restricts their ability to enter, remain in and advance within the labour market. Many workplaces still lack essential care-supportive measures such as flexible working arrangements, parental and care leave, and family-friendly workplace practices.

The Care@Work Türkiye project aims to address these gaps by encouraging enterprises to better understand caregiving responsibilities, adopt supportive workplace practices and recognise the business and social value of equitable, care-responsive employment models. By doing so, the project seeks to support women’s labour force participation while benefiting employers through improved engagement, retention and performance.

Implementation will involve pilot enterprises from various sectors, which will test and refine the Care-Supportive Workplace Model. In parallel, government institutions, employers’ and workers’ organisations, and international financial institutions will contribute through policy alignment, social dialogue and broader dissemination of good practices.

Although piloting will take place in selected enterprises, the project will operate nationwide, engaging stakeholders across Türkiye through policy dialogue, awareness-raising campaigns and knowledge-sharing activities, in line with the ILO’s mandate to promote decent work and social justice at the national level.