1. Introduction
Force & Brothers Yönetim Danışmanlık Şirketi has, from its establishment, adopted the principles of being fair to everyone, empathising with everyone without discrimination, offering equal opportunities to everyone, serving society, being respectful towards its clients, its employees and nature, being oriented towards sustainable service and prioritising social impact, and undertakes to remain committed to these principles.
Our company also closely follows the changing needs and rising values in the world and in Türkiye. In this context it continuously monitors and develops its values. It is evident how urgent it is to redesign workplaces within the framework of equality between women and men, to review their core values and to take effective steps to ensure continuity in this area.
With this understanding, we are pleased to share with our valued employees, our stakeholders and the public that we have adopted the Force & Brothers Policy Document on Workplace Code of Conduct Sensitive to Equality between Women and Men, which we prepared on the basis of the “Guide for Gender-Equality-Sensitive Companies and Institutions” published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Force & Brothers is aware that workplace codes of conduct sensitive to equality between women and men do not arise solely from economic, social and humanitarian necessities, but also have legal bases. In this sense, it recognises that the rules of conduct below are directly related to the following:
- Article 10 of the 1982 Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye,
- Article 11 of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to which Türkiye is also a signatory, and Article 4 of the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention),
- Article 5 of Labour Law No. 4857,
- Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 and the related legislation,
- Article 56 of the Türkiye Industrial Strategy Document (2015-2018),
- International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions,
- Goal 5 of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,
- United Nations Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
Force & Brothers recognises this direct relationship.
Our company also regards this document as a continuation of the steps it has taken towards, and the good practices it has shown in, equality between women and men. On this occasion, we would like to state that there is no gender-based barrier to the advancement of female employees within our company, that all of our female and male employees are assigned duties regardless of their gender, and that, with our egalitarian approach, we will maintain our quality of being a ‘leader and example’ in our sector.
Our company is aware of the need to take effective, goal-oriented and results-oriented steps in order to be a company sensitive to equality between women and men. It therefore undertakes to take and to continue the following steps within the company. In addition, our company accepts that it is directly responsible for the entry into force of this document and for putting the related actions into practice.
2. Steps Aimed at Raising Sensitivity to Equality between Women and Men in the Workplace
- Company management undertakes to lead the work being carried out and to be carried out towards achieving gender equality.
- The work done for our company has no gender. No gender-based distinction may arise in processes such as pay, access to career opportunities, professional development and promotion. In this framework, Force & Brothers undertakes to promote the female employee from among male and female employees who have equal qualifications.
- Our company pays attention to diversity as well as to Gender Equality in the workplace. In particular, it aims to give priority in future recruitment to women who wish to enter working life and who are disabled, refugees or from different socio-economic groups.
- In the projects it carries out and will carry out, our company gives priority to projects that contribute to gender equality.
- Our company is aware of the difficulties our female employees face in accessing childcare services after childbirth. For this reason, a room that can be used when needed will be planned, taking into account the special needs of our female employees such as the breastfeeding period.
- Our company believes that sharing domestic responsibilities in a balanced way between men and women will both increase sensitivity to equality between women and men in the workplace and is essential for raising new generations who have internalised equality. In this sense, in the medium term, our employees who are married or who are expecting to have children will be encouraged to attend motherhood and fatherhood training provided by various institutions.
- In addition to our female employees, who are given their maternity leave, daily breastfeeding time and unpaid leave rights in accordance with the law, our male employees will continue to be encouraged to take paternity leave, and the family-friendly approach will be maintained.
- Our company is aware that allocating financial resources and making a non-material investment are important in order to ensure Gender Equality. It has therefore decided to take steps on the following matters:
- Our company, which cares about the emotional security as much as the physical security of our female and male employees, will first identify our employees' needs in this regard. To this end, in the short term, communication channels such as e-mail and a suggestion box will be opened in order to identify, meet and follow up the workplace-specific needs of our female employees in particular.
- Our company is opposed to all forms of violence, sexual harassment and psychological violence (mobbing) in the workplace. Administrative sanctions will be applied to perpetrators of violence, and a culture of violence will not be allowed to take root in our company in any way. In the medium term, external online training will be obtained on how harassment can be combated in the workplace. A reporting line through which any unethical behaviour, including violence, can be reported anonymously will be put into operation.
- Our company undertakes to make its business partner selections taking into account the equality and anti-violence policies of third parties.
- Our company undertakes to deepen its business relationships with suppliers owned by women entrepreneurs. In purchases to be made within the scope of Force & Brothers' workplace needs or projects, businesses owned by women entrepreneurs will be taken into consideration.
- Our company considers it important to collect quantitative data on being a women-friendly company and to share this data with the public. For this reason, in the short term we will redesign our existing database so that women's applications to the Company can be tracked, and we will create new tracking criteria aimed at measuring our Company's women-friendly performance.
- Our company is very sensitive about the confidentiality and security of the personal data of its clients, its stakeholders and its employees, and will continue to be meticulous in this regard.
3. Conclusion
For Force & Brothers, the workplace code of conduct sensitive to equality between women and men is a ‘living and breathing’ document. It therefore undertakes that the implementation tied to these rules will be monitored at least once a year with the participation of an independent auditor, that the document will be reviewed in line with developing needs, and that new rules and related practices will be added to it in line with changing needs.