Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
SAGE Open, cilt.15, sa.1, 2025 (SSCI)
Non-unionized basketball players’ opinions on unionization and their experiences of violation of employee rights Introduction: Unions are crucial organizations to protect and promote employee rights. Employees can defend their rights more effectively through trade unions in cases such as non-payment of wages, discrimination, and abuse. The unions established in different branches and countries in professional sports aim to protect and improve athletes’ rights. In Türkiye, professional basketball players do not have unions. Therefore, their views on unionization and their experiences of employment rights violations are essential. Aim: To learn the opinions of professional and non-unionized Turkish basketball players toward unionization and the employment rights violations they have experienced. Method: Forty-two professional Turkish basketball players were interviewed. Respondents were asked about their views on unionization and the violations of employment rights they had experienced. The respondents’ responses were audio-recorded and transcribed into written text, and the responses were coded and categorized. Results: Respondents were underpaid or late paid and abused by their employers. Rookie-veteran, local-foreign, and political view discrimination were identified. Despite employment rights violations, the respondents do not apply to the legal process due to mobbing concerns. Respondents’ opinions on unionization were divided into two: positive and negative. Among the positive views, the idea that trade unions can solve the power imbalance between employees and employers came to the fore. On the negative side, the respondents stated that employers would mob athletes in case of unionization attempts and that solidarity among athletes is insufficient. Conclusion: Respondents were found to be economically and psychologically exploited, and there was no strong tendency toward unionization. In future research, targets have been set to identify the problems experienced as laborers by professional athletes from different cultures and branches. The research aims to uncover the violation of employment rights of professional basketball players, their experiences related to legal proceedings resulting from this, and their views on unionization. In this regard, a basic qualitative research design was preferred. The respondents were 42 Turkish basketball players in the Turkish professional basketball leagues, selected through criterion sampling. A semi-structured interview schedule was used as the data collection tool. Individual interviews and focus group discussions were utilized during the data collection process. Qualitative content analysis was applied in the data analysis process. The findings are divided into three themes: violation of employee rights, legal process, the unionization idea. Under the theme of employee rights violation: there are categories such as violation of the remuneration right, disregard for the athlete and discrimination. The legal process theme consists of two categories: reasons to avoid the legal process and reasons for taking legal action. The theme of the unionization idea is divided into two categories: positive opinions and negative opinions. Respondents’ employment rights were found to be violated. Due to the pressure exerted by employers on athletes, respondents are hesitant to take legal action and unionize for fear of being subjected to mobbing. It has been concluded that unionization is not possible due to the lack of solidarity among professional basketball players. However, if it were to happen, it would increase solidarity and eliminate the power imbalance between employees and employers.