Women Employees Power up Tüpraş and Energize Turkey

İbrahim Yelmenoğlu, General Manager of Tüpraş:

“We aim to create an inclusive work environment in the energy industry, in which we operate and which is often considered as a male dominant area. We are so proud and happy to produce the energy of Turkey with our men and women employees, and we take our strength from working side by side with each other. We know well that no profession requires any specific gender, but an expert. We sincerely believe that a society acting by these principles would develop in every area, and with this belief, we will maintain our efforts by saying “Our Energy for Equality Never Ends” and will continue to produce the energy of our country together.

Tüpraş, the largest corporation of Turkey, continues its pioneering and exemplary works to create an inclusive work environment in the energy industry, in which it operates and which is considered as a male dominant area. Undersigning a pioneering practice in the energy industry by employing women staff working in shifts in the production sites of its four refineries, Tüpraş continues to increase the number of its women staff at all levels and in all areas.

Woman Field Operators and Technicians in Shifts

Stating that woman operators and technicians, who work in shifts, have joined Tüpraş for the first time in Batman two years ago and then in İzmit, Kırıkkale, and Izmir refineries, İbrahim Yelmenoğlu, General Manager of Tüpraş, said, “There have always been women engineers working on-site in our refineries until today, but employment of our women staff to work in shifts on-site was a pioneering and exemplary practice both for our company and our industry. We are very happy and proud to take this brave step in this field of operation, which has always been male dominant.”

Saying that women field technicians are successfully working with male colleagues under the same conditions after completing basic refinery trainings, Yelmenoğlu added. “We aim to increase the number of women site staff, who work in shifts, expand the scope of our project, and have women staff in the medium term in senior site positions, such as foremanship.

Woman field operators, working in production and maintenance, are taking responsibilities in tasks, such as land filling unit, tanker filling bays, final vehicle-driver checks, weighbridge operations, and valve operations, as well as in different areas, such as on-site maintenance, repairing, and control works for instrument maintenance.

One of the first signatories of UN Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in Turkey

Stating that they continue their efforts to support “Gender Equality,” the 5th of Sustainable Development Goals, both on worksites and across the society, Yelmenoğlu said, “We are the supporter and follower of gender equality in parallel with the direction set by our parent company Koç Holding, in 2015. We are a supporter of the HeForShe movement, initiated by UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women), which ensures that men do also join the efforts for achieving gender equality, and in which Koç Holding is Global Impact Champion. We aim to create an inclusive work environment in the energy industry, in which we operate. We have been a signatory to UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, which were created to increase awareness for establishing workplaces sensitive to gender equality and to develop strategies and collaborations for this purpose, since 2017. We are implementing workplaces that are sensitive to gender equality while making a contribution to the economic empowerment of women.”

The ratio of women employees has increased by 78 percent since 2008

Explaining that they have increased the ratio of women employees by 78 percent in Tüpraş since 2008, Yelmenoğlu said, “While only 30 percent of recruitments were women in 2008, this ratio has increased to almost half of our recruitments in 2020. 10% of all our employees are women as of today. However, this ratio has reached 30% in our offices. 67 percent of our R&D department is composed of women. While the ratio of our women staff in executive level is 24 percent, women correspond to 45 percent of our talent pool.”

The support for HeForShe project continues by collaborating with Fenerbahçe, which has more than 25 million supporters

While developing comprehensive practices at worksites for empowering women, Tüpraş does also make collaborations to increase awareness in the society. The global collaboration, which the company launched in 2018 with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women with Fenerbahçe Sports Club and HeForShe movement for gender equality by believing in the binding and transforming power of sports, still continues.

This collaboration with HeForShe movement and Fenerbahçe Sports Club, with its more than 25 million supporters, aims to reach many more people for equality and continues to be the trigger of change and transformation for Tüpraş.