14 August, 2025At a press conference in İzmir today, IndustriALL affiliate TEKSİF shared detailed testimonies and evidence of what it says are systematic patterns of harassment, discrimination, and abuse at Digel Textile, a German-owned menswear manufacturer in the İzmir Free Zone.
The event was framed by a striking poster listing the abuses workers face daily: “Mobbing, psychological violence, hazing, pressure, intimidation, occupational bullying, sexual harassment, unlawful dismissal, discrimination, insults, workplace practices against human and women’s dignity.” According to IndustriALL affiliate, TEKSİF, these words reflect real and ongoing experiences reported by hundreds of Digel workers, especially women, over a period of several years.
The findings, based on dozens of testimonies from workers, most of them women, are described by TEKSİF as revealing a disturbing picture of life inside the factory. The union’s newly released report details claims of mobbing, psychological violence, sexual harassment, unlawful dismissals, and gender-based discrimination that it says have intensified since workers unionized in January 2025.
The press conference highlighted that on 17 January 2025, after workers protested low wages and degrading working conditions, Digel dismissed four leading union members without severance on the very same day they joined TEKSİF and won official recognition from the Ministry of Labour. Further dismissals followed on 6 February and 13 June, bringing the total to 15 members fired during the unionisation process.
The report alleges disturbing cases, including:
- Managers allegedly telling women “not to get pregnant,” demanding ultrasound images to “prove” pregnancy, and even commenting on women’s bodies in degrading ways.
- Women said to be denied restroom access during menstruation or publicly shamed for requesting breaks.
- Sexual harassment by managers and colleagues, allegedly ignored, or even perpetrated, by supervisors.
- Targeted mobbing and verbal abuse against women who are reported to resist intimidation.
TEKSİF underlined that these accounts span roughly seven years and demonstrate not isolated incidents but a persistent workplace culture where women are subject to gender-based violence, discrimination, and humiliation. The union stated that complaints have often been met with inaction, and in some cases perpetrators have been rewarded rather than sanctioned.
Since January, Digel has fired 15 union members without compensation, in what TEKSİF calls a deliberate campaign to break the union. Many of those targeted were leading voices in the fight for decent wages, safety, and dignity at work.
Digel workers first made headlines in January when they staged a factory protest against poverty wages and degrading conditions. That same day, they joined TEKSİF and won official recognition from the Ministry of Labour. Instead of respecting workers’ rights, management is said to have launched a wave of retaliatory dismissals and intensified harassment.
For nearly 210 days, dismissed workers have held a determined protest outside the factory gates, in what TEKSİF describes as both a fight for reinstatement and a broader struggle for safe, equal, and harassment-free workplaces
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:
“Digel Textile’s behaviour is a shameful violation of workers’ rights and human dignity. We fully support TEKSİF’s fight to end the abuse, reinstate the dismissed workers, and secure a workplace where women and men are treated with respect.”