Aralık 22, 2025

ABOUT US

ABOUT US

KEY STONES IN OUR UNION’S HISTORY

The Öz-Sağlık İş Trade Union was founded on 27 February 2014 in Ankara, capital city of the Republic of Türkiye.

Its full name is, in English, the Öz Sağlık-İş Health and Social Services Workers Trade Union and abbreviated as ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ in Turkish language. In other words, the “ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ” is acronym of our union and this could be said as “real health labourers’ union” in English.

Its full title is in English language is the Öz Sağlık-İş Health and Social Services Workers Trade Union (Syndicate) operates in the Health and Social Services sector (line of business) numbered 17 in compliance with the Turkish legal regulations. At the present, Act No. 6356 on Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining Agreements specifically regulates union structures, collective bargaining issues in Türkiye.

In brief, Law of Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining Agreements No. 6356 entered into force and published in the Official Gazette (Resmi Gazete), on 07.11.2012. This law covers regulations making changes and amending the previous system whose legal regulations were the Law No. 2821 and 2822 before the Law No. 6356. Issues regulated by this law of 6356 are as follows: Basic Concepts Regarding Unions, Regulations Regarding Unionisation, Regulations Regarding Union Bodies, Entitlement to and Loss of Union Membership, Union Fee of Membership, Membership to International Bodies, Guarantees for Union Managers, Guarantees for Office/Working Place Union Representatives, Guarantees for Union Membership Protection of Individual Unionisation Freedom, Activities, Revenues and Expenditures, Supervision and Dissolution and Termination of Institutions.

ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ is a pro-active union movement with more than 215 thousand members in the health and social services sector. By being a large and strong civil society organization and a leading syndicate, it has 97 branches and over 3.500 union representatives (shop stewards) throughout the country.

Consequently, at the present, ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ is the leading (the biggest/leader) in its own work branch standing for the 17-numbered health and social services sector of Türkiye as per the 6356 numbered Unions and Collective Labour Contracts Act; the second biggest among the HAK-IS Confederation affiliates and the third throughout the country by (in) number of members.

At the present, the Real Health and Social Services Workers Syndicate is, whose acronym is ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ, is 3rd biggest trade union together with around 215.000 members. In this regard, it is leading one in the Health and Social Services sector in Türkiye.

OUR FIRST CONGRESS AND ITS RESULT

The ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ held its first congress (General Assembly) on April 12th, 2014 in Ankara. In this congress, all delegates unanimously accepted and decided to join the HAK-İŞ Trade Union Confederation ( www.hakis.org.tr ). In other words, the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ is a member union (a sectorial affiliation) of HAK-İŞ Confederation which is a member of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC – www.etuc.org) at European level and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC – www.ituc-csi.org) global level as well as an active member of the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC- https://tuac.org ) to the OECD standing for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, https://www.oecd.org/ .

The ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union is such a labour movement which is deeply bound up with all principles and values of the HAK-IS Trade Union Confederation as well as universal values such as human dignity, equality, democracy. In this sense, ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ is the bannerbearer of HAK-IS’ mission, vision, values and priorities at national and global levels.

In addition, the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union is one of founding members of the World Islamic Health Union (WIHU, http://www.wihu.org.tr/ ). At the present, Mr. Devlet Sert is General Secretary of the WIHU. Detailed information about relations between our union and WIHU is accessible through the OUR ACTIVITIES menu.

Since the establishment date of our union, the organization and association efforts have been intensively carried out by its executives and experts. As a result of those activities, the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union has achieved to be entitled to signing collective agreements with employers in the Health and Social Services sector at the end of (in the) first year. Such an organisational success is the first in the Health and Social Services sector.

Mr. Devlet Sert has been elected as the the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union President as well as Mr. Mustafa Özüpek, Mr. Emre Kocaman, Mr. Mevlüt Görgülü and Ms. Seyyide Sema Saritaş have been voted as its Executive Board Members at the Extraordinary Congress on 25 July 2015 in Ankara.

As a result of the 2^nd Congress (General Assembly) of the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union, held on 09 December 2017 in Ankara, Mr. Devlet Sert has been re-elected as the the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union President as well as Mr. Mustafa Özüpek, Mr. Süleyman Doğan and Mrs. Tuba Gülpembelioğlu have been voted as its Executive Board Members.

As a result of the 3^rd Congress (General Assembly) of the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union, held on 20-21 November 2021 in Ankara, Mr. Devlet Sert has been re-elected as the the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union President as well as Mr. Mustafa Özüpek, Mr. Süleyman Doğan and Mr. Adem Yavuz have been assigned as its Executive Board Members.

As a result of the 4^th Congress (General Assembly) of the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union, held on 08 November 2025 in Ankara, Mr. Devlet Sert has been re-elected as the the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union President as well as Mr. Muhammet Esat EYVAZ, Mr. Emre KOCAMAN, Mr. İsmail ÖZTÜRK and Mr. Fehmi AZBOY have been voted as its Executive Board Members.

The ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Syndicate, which accelerated its organisational campaign throughout the country immediately after the permanent status transition struggle of sub-contracting workers in the Turkish public sector, became an authorised trade union by achieving membership majority in both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Family and Social Services in a very short time.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

As of December 2025, the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union is a huge labour movement together with over 215 thousand members and over 3,500 union representatives (shop stewards) at the workplace level in the health and social services sector in Türkiye.

Head Office of the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Syndicate is located in Ankara, capital city of Türkiye.

The ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union, which has already completed its organisational structure in all (81) provinces throughout the country, pertinaciously, resolutely and successfully continued its organisational and collective bargaining initiatives at universities and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) bodies. At the present, there are 97 branches of ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union throughout the country.

By having the upmost number of members/workers in the health and social services sector in Türkiye, ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ is among the 3 largest labour unions in our country.

The obligatory organs of the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union are Congress (General Assembly), General Executive Board, General Auditory Board and General Disciplinary Board at its head Office in Ankara.

The mentioned bodies/organs are also available at the branch level in the provincial organization of our Union.

Congress (General Assembly) of the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Syndicate is composed of delegates elected by the shop stewards at workplace level throughout the country in proportion to their membership (employee) numbers.

It gathers once every four years to elect and assign president, executive board members as well as audit and discipline officials.

At every congress, delegates discuss the Programme of Action for the next four years. And the last Congress of ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Syndicate held in Ankara on 7-8 November 2025.

In addition, the following 10 standing committees are active under the roof of the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union in order to conduct specific studies and works for the benefit of not only for our members but also for all workers and human beings:

1- The Disaster Affairs Committee,

2- The Training Planning Committee,

3- The Disabled Committee,

4- The Palestine and Jerusalem Support Union Solidarity Committee,

5- The Youth Committee,

6- The Occupational Health and Safety Committee,

7- The Women Committee,

8- The Culture-Art Committee,

9- The Social Media Committee and

10-The Turkish World Committee.

Another body is the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union Extended Board of Presidents which consists of the General Executive Board, General Supervisory Board and General Disciplinary Board Members, the General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, Branch Presidents and Deputy Branch Presidents.

This union structure, which has a consultation function, meets once a year to assess recent developments in the health and social services sector as well as prominent issues on the national, regional and world agendas.

It is also noted that an academic research institution whose title is ÖZ-SAM standing for the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Strategic Research Centre, https://ozsaglikis.org/oz-sam/ ), the Financial Affairs Directorate, the Legal Affairs and Consultancy Department, the Collective Bargaining Department, the Organising Department, the Publishing & Media, the International Relations Department and the Project Implementation and Coordination Unit are and sufficient number of experts who are specialised at the mentioned fields are active under the ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ Trade Union umbrella.

Core Values of ÖZ SAĞLIK-İŞ involves the followings:

– Rights of health and social service workers

– Rule of law

– Commitment to ethical values

– Institutionalism

– Sincerity and trust

– Excellence

Our mission suggests:

In accordance with the purpose of our union;

-To defend all social and personal rights of health and social service workers in the best way possible, especially in legal areas, so that those working in the field of health and social services can live more prosperously and protected lives.

– To present their demands and requests to the relevant state institutions and to follow up on the results and act accordingly.

– To respect and safeguard the rights of health and social service workers as our trust in our services without compromising legal, moral and ethical principles.

Thanks to the power, knowledge and experience of our umbrella organisation which is the HAK-IS Trade Union Confederation and the advanced and widespread organizational structure of our Syndicate;

– To improve the rights and interests of our members by signing much better collective labour agreements;

– To continue our pioneering (leading) role in working life and union struggle,

– To be a bridge from the past to the future, and

– To contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of all workers, especially our members.