if we do not follow them.’ Principles and policies are only for H&M. They are only followed when they serve H&M and when H&M is winning.”71 There has however been some success with a different union at H&M stores in Turkey. In September 2017, Türk-İş, a member of Turkey Cooperatives, Commerce and Office Workers’ Union’s (Koop-İş), began unionisation efforts at H&M. The Union’s application to the Labour Ministry received a positive result, subsequently receiving a competency certificate with a letter dated February 15, 2019.72 A social dialogue was established between the parties with the support of global unions, and collective bargaining negotiations started on April 24, 2019.73 Source: Tez-Koop-İş Sendikası H&M Hugo Boss - H&M workers are not alone, right to associate cannot be prevented! A September 2018 Clean Clothes Campaign report on the working conditions in Swedish company H&M’s supplier firms confirms these findings. According to interviews conducted with workers in Bulgaria, Cambodia, India and Turkey in that year, a portion of workers only get paid the legal minimum wage if they work overtime and fulfil their quotas.70 This violates the legal requirement that the statutory minimum wage must be earned in regular working hours. The International Labour Organization defines this as forced labour. At the same time, H&M has a large store network in Turkey, with 3,100 employees and 72 stores. At these stores an employee leading unionisation efforts was dismissed in 2018 without severance pay. In an interview with TezKoop-İş Union’s Gencemek magazine he talked about the company’s stance towards its employees as following: ““H&M is getting Turkified (he smiles). The fact that rules are not applied in Turkey, flexible rules, lack of sanctions and the working class not seeking for its rights…. Because they are aware of this situation, I think that they got to the point of ‘We’re already doing this, we have many rules, but it will be fine Background Information Specialised in mens-wear and womens-wear, Hugo Boss AG is a German company that produces clothes. It has at least 6,100 stores in 110 countries. The company has published a “Code of Conduct.” The document guarantees that HUGO BOSS has committed itself and its suppliers to comply with the internationally recognized social and labour rights laid down in the Conventions of the ILO.74 In Article 3.9 of the company’s “Social Standards” document, in addition to all other rights, it states that the company recognizes the right to freedom of association.75 Since 1999, Turkey has been a production site for Hugo Boss. The production site in the Aegean Free Zone is among the foremost manufacturing centres in the world for products such as suits, shirts and women’s clothes. 71 Gencemek, Sayı:2, s.69 (http://www.tezkoopis.org/uploads/genc2.pdf) 72 https://www.koopis.org.tr/haber/koop-is-sendikasi-ndan-yeni-bir-oerguetlenme-zaferi/120 (Accessed on 26.08.2019) 73 https://www.koopis.org.tr/haber/h-m-birinci-doenem-toplu-is-soezlesmesi-goeruesmelerine-baslandi/186 (Accessed on 26.08.2019) 74 https://group.hugoboss.com/fileadmin/media/pdf/sustainability/EN/Code_of_Conduct.pdf (Accessed on 26.08.2019) 70 H&M: Fair Living Wages Were Promised, Poverty Wages are the Reality (Research Findings on Wages at H&M’s Strategic Suppliers) Clean Clothes Campaign report [https://turnaroundhm.org/hm-wages-september2018-full-107815e8a7bc3b 75 https://group.hugoboss.com/fileadmin/media/pdf/sustainability/EN/Social_Standards_EN.pdf (Accessed on d4ffbfeca3426f1dcd.pdf] 26.08.2019) 66 C O L L E C T I V E R I G H T S O F W O R K E R S U N D E R T U R K E Y ’ S C O N T I N U O U S S TAT E O F E M E R G E N C Y T R A D E U N I O N R I G H T S I N E U R O P E A N A N D E U R O P E A N - A F F I L I AT E D E N T E R P R I S E S E X A M P L E S O F C O L L E C T I V E L A B O U R R I G H T S V I O L AT I O N S I N E U R O P E A N I N V E S T M E N T E N T E R P R I S E S 67