Tradesmen and Craftsmen are in Parliament: Urgent Expectations from Palandöken in the New Legislative Year!

TESK President Bendevi Palandöken emphasized that the priority agenda of the Parliament, which will open on October 1, should be to make life easier for tradesmen and artisans. He listed the critical demands of 2.5 million tradesmen, from the Retail Law to equalizing the number of Bağ-Kur premium days.

28 September 2025 - ANKARA - Bendevi Palandöken, President of the Confederation of Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen (TESK), made a comprehensive statement expressing the expectations of the tradesmen and craftsmen community from the Parliament before the start of the new legislative year on October 1. Palandöken stated that regulations that will relieve the work of approximately 2.5 million tradesmen and increase their contribution to the economy should be urgently implemented.

Retail Law Revision Required: Unfair Competition Must End

Palandöken emphasized that the most important step for the tradesmen to survive and for the citizens to access affordable, quality products is a radical revision of the Retail Law. Stating that the current law fuels unfair competition that works against tradesmen, Palandöken summarized the critical steps to be taken as follows:

• Opening-Closing Hours Should be Regulated: Hours should be redefined to prevent unfair competition, especially between large chain markets and small shopkeepers.

• Determining Ratio According to Population: It should become mandatory to license retail outlets according to the population density in the province and district where they are located.

• 'I Sell Everything' Approach Should Be Prevented: A healthy competition environment should be created by preventing retail giants from selling even the basic commodities of tradesmen.

Palandöken said, "If we want inflation to fall and a healthy competitive environment to be created, these steps must be taken. Necessary measures should be taken to ensure that artisans can safely present their handcrafted products," he said.

Uniformity in Social Security: 7,200 Day Equality Vital

The demand for the elimination of the biggest victimization that craftsmen and artisans have been waiting for years is intensifying in the field of social security. TESK President noted that equalization of the number of days of premium for Bağ-Kur is of vital importance.

"While an employee working with him can retire with 7,200 days of premium, the tradesman himself can retire in 9,000 days. This period should be immediately reduced to 7,200 days. This is the biggest injustice experienced by our tradesmen and contrary to the principle of norm unity."

Victimization of Apprenticeship Period and Health Insurance

Palandöken also drew attention to the situation of young people receiving apprenticeship training and stated that the expectations of masters should be met in order to train artisans. He stated that the victimization of the apprentices, who are only insured for health insurance during their internship periods in vocational high schools, will be eliminated by including their work based on pension in this scope.

The risk that the health insurance facility provided by the Presidential decree will expire at the end of the year was also mentioned: "After the end of the year, tradesmen will have to buy their own medicine. This situation needs to be permanently resolved."

Debt Burden Restructuring Will Relieve Tradesmen

Another urgent demand of the tradesmen is a comprehensive restructuring to relieve the debt burden accumulated during difficult processes such as pandemics, earthquakes and high inflation. Palandöken underlined that their demand is definitely not pardon, but debt restructuring.

"People who cannot pay their debts need to be paved the way for them to continue their trade. We do not want 'amnesty', we want structuring on a scale that we can pay. Thus, we say let's pay our debt and contribute to the state. The restructurings made in the past years have both relieved the tradesmen and provided a significant income to the state. It is the greatest expectation of the tradesmen to start working on this issue in the new legislative year."

Palandöken emphasized that the Parliament should eliminate these unfair regulations and ensure that the tradesmen and craftsmen breathe a sigh of relief as of 2026.