Employment law

Notice and notice pay

An open-ended employment contract can be ended only after notice to the other side. The minimum notice depends on the length of service (Labour Act art. 17):

A contract may lengthen these periods but not shorten them. A party that ends the contract without notice owes the wages for the notice period as notice pay (ihbar tazminatı), whether that party is the employer or a worker who walks out. The employer may instead pay the notice wages in advance and end the contract at once. Notice pay is calculated on the wage plus the money-valued benefits the worker receives under the contract and the law (art. 17). During the notice period the worker is entitled to at least two hours of paid job-search leave a day (art. 27).

A worker outside job security (see below) whose contract is ended in abuse of the right to terminate is owed bad-faith compensation (kötüniyet tazminatı) of three times the notice-period wages, plus notice pay if notice was not given (art. 17). Since July 2025, notice of termination must always be in writing, delivered against signature or, if the worker has agreed to it in writing, by registered e-mail (KEP) (art. 109).

Leaving or dismissing at once for just cause

Either side may end the contract without notice on the grounds the Labour Act lists, and the ground decides whether severance pay is owed. A worker may leave at once if, among other grounds, the work endangers their health, the employer insults, sexually harasses, threatens or falsely accuses them, the employer takes no measures after being told of sexual harassment by others, or wages are not calculated or paid as the law or the contract requires (Labour Act art. 24). An employer may dismiss at once for, among other grounds, deception when hiring, insults, sexual harassment of another worker, theft or breach of trust, coming to work drunk or on drugs, and unexcused absence on 2 working days in a row, twice in a month on the day after a holiday, or on 3 working days in a month (art. 25/II).

A party relying on the other’s immoral or bad-faith conduct must act within 6 working days of learning of it and at the latest 1 year after the act; the one-year limit does not apply if the worker gained a material benefit (art. 26). A worker dismissed under art. 25 may challenge the ground in court under art. 18, 20 and 21 (art. 25).

Severance pay

Severance pay (kıdem tazminatı) is governed by art. 14 of Law 1475, the only article of the former Labour Act still in force (Labour Act art. 120). It is owed when:

• the employer ends the contract for any reason other than misconduct under Labour Act art. 25/II;
• the worker leaves for a just cause under art. 24, or for compulsory military service;
• the worker leaves to receive an old-age, retirement or disability pension or a lump sum, or after completing the insurance period and premium days needed for an old-age pension, apart from the age condition;
• a woman leaves within one year of her marriage;
• the worker dies, in which case the legal heirs receive it.

The amount is 30 days’ gross wages for each full year of service, and time beyond a full year is paid at the same rate, pro rata. Service with the same employer is added up, even across different workplaces or after breaks and new contracts. The article pays for full years and counts part-years only beyond the first, so it is read as requiring at least one year’s service (Law 1475 art. 14).

The calculation uses the last wage plus the money-valued benefits the worker received under the contract and the law. Contracts and collective agreements may raise the 30 days, but the amount for one year of service cannot exceed a ceiling: the maximum retirement bonus for one year of service of the highest-ranking civil servant. The ceiling is revised every six months; the severance and notice pay calculator applies the one in force on the termination date. If severance pay is paid late, the court orders interest at the highest rate paid on bank deposits (art. 14).

A worked example (hypothetical). An employer dismisses a worker without notice after 6 years and 4 months, for a reason that is not misconduct. Severance pay is 6 × 30 = 180 days’ wages for the full years plus 4/12 × 30 = 10 days for the four months: 190 days’ gross wages, with each year’s amount capped at the ceiling. With more than three years’ service, notice pay adds 8 weeks, that is 56 days’ wages (Labour Act art. 17); the severance ceiling does not apply to it.

Severance, notice pay, bad-faith compensation and annual-leave pay are time-barred after five years, whatever law governs the contract (Labour Act additional art. 3). For annual-leave pay the period runs from the end of the contract (art. 59).

Job security and reinstatement

Job security (iş güvencesi) protects a worker with at least six months’ service on an open-ended contract at a workplace with 30 or more workers; underground workers need no minimum service. The employer then needs a valid reason connected with the worker’s competence or conduct, or with the needs of the business, the workplace or the work (Labour Act art. 18). The six months include service at all of the same employer’s workplaces, and the number of workers is counted across all its workplaces in the same line of business. Managers who run the whole business, or a whole workplace with power to hire and fire, are not covered.

Reasons that are never valid include union activity, a complaint against the employer to the authorities or the courts, sex, race, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, religion and political opinion, and absence during maternity leave (art. 18). The notice must be in writing and state the reason clearly, and a worker cannot be dismissed for conduct or performance without first being asked for a defence, except for misconduct under art. 25/II (art. 19). The employer must prove the valid reason (art. 20).

To challenge a dismissal:

1. Apply to a mediator within one month of being served the notice of dismissal, asking for reinstatement (art. 20). The application goes to the mediation bureau where the employer is domiciled or where the work was done (Law 7036 art. 3/5).
2. Mediation. The mediator has three weeks from appointment, extendable by one week (Law 7036 art. 3/10). A settlement must fix the date of return, the pay for the time out of work and the compensation if the worker is not taken back; otherwise the parties are deemed not to have agreed (Labour Act art. 21).
3. Sue within two weeks of the final mediation report (son tutanak), in the labour court or, if both sides agree, before a private arbitrator (art. 20).
4. Judgment and appeal. The case is heard as a matter of urgency. On appeal (istinaf) the regional court of appeal decides finally, with no further appeal to the Court of Cassation (art. 20; Law 7036 art. 8).
5. Apply to return within 10 working days of being served the final judgment, or the dismissal is treated as valid (Labour Act art. 21).

If the dismissal is found invalid and the employer does not take the worker back within one month of the application, it owes compensation of 4 to 8 months’ wages. It also owes up to 4 months’ wages and other entitlements for the time out of work until the judgment became final. The court fixes these sums in money, on the wage at the date of the claim (art. 21).

A worked example (hypothetical). A notice of dismissal is served on Wednesday 1 September 2027. The last day to apply to a mediator is Friday 1 October. The worker applies on 13 September, and on Monday 4 October the mediator’s final report records that no agreement was reached. The claim must be filed by Monday 18 October 2027. Once the final judgment is served, the worker has ten working days from service to apply to the employer to return (Labour Act art. 20, 21).

Unpaid wages, overtime and annual leave

Wages. Wages are paid at least monthly. When the contract ends, the wage and all money-valued benefits must be paid in full (Labour Act art. 32). A worker whose wage is still unpaid 20 days after the payment date, other than through force majeure, may refuse to work and cannot be dismissed for it; the late wage carries interest at the highest rate paid on bank deposits (art. 34). Unpaid wages are also a just cause to leave at once with severance pay (art. 24/II(e); Law 1475 art. 14).

Overtime. Working time is at most 45 hours a week. By agreement it may be spread unevenly, up to 11 hours a day, if the weekly average over two months (up to four under a collective agreement) stays within the normal hours (Labour Act art. 63). Work beyond the weekly hours is paid as follows (art. 41):

Instead of the extra pay, the worker may choose time off: 1 hour 30 minutes for each overtime hour and 1 hour 15 minutes for each extra hour, used within six months without loss of pay. Overtime needs the worker’s consent, may not exceed 270 hours a year and is not allowed in night work (art. 41).

Annual leave. After at least one year’s service, probation included, a worker is entitled to paid annual leave and cannot waive it (art. 53):

Workers aged 18 or under, or 50 or over, get at least 20 days. However the contract ends, leave earned but not taken is paid at the last wage (art. 59).

Time limits. Wage claims are time-barred after five years (art. 32); this includes overtime pay, which art. 41 itself calls a wage. Limitation runs from the day each payment falls due (TBK art. 149), and wages fall due at least monthly, so in a long employment the oldest months are lost first.

Proving unregistered work

Where the employer did not report a worker’s service to the Social Security Institution (Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu, SGK), or the SGK could not detect the work, the worker can prove it by suing in the labour court (hizmet tespit davası). The claim must be brought within five years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was done; the SGK then counts the earnings and premium days stated in the judgment (Law 5510 art. 86). Each year therefore has its own deadline: work done in 2022 must be claimed by the end of 2027.

Unlike other social-security disputes, this claim needs no prior application to the SGK. The court notifies the SGK, which joins on the employer’s side, may appeal even if the employer does not, and must apply the final judgment (Law 7036 art. 4).

Psychological harassment (mobbing)

The employer must protect the worker’s personality and, in particular, take the measures needed to prevent psychological and sexual harassment and to stop those already harassed from suffering further harm (TBK art. 417). The law calls it psychological harassment (psikolojik taciz); “mobbing” is the everyday name.

• Damages. A claim for the violation of personality rights through the employer’s breach of the law or the contract follows the rules on contractual liability (art. 417/3) and may include moral damages (art. 58).
• Leaving with severance pay. Insults, sexual harassment, assault, threats or serious false accusations by the employer, and reported sexual harassment by others that the employer leaves unaddressed, are just causes to leave at once (Labour Act art. 24/II(b)–(d)), with severance pay (Law 1475 art. 14). The worker must act within six working days of learning of the conduct (Labour Act art. 26).
• Mediation and time limit. A damages claim against the employer is a worker’s compensation claim based on the law, so mediation comes first (Law 7036 art. 3/1). The general limitation period for contractual claims is ten years (TBK art. 146).

Work accidents and occupational diseases

A work accident (iş kazası) is an event that disables an insured worker physically or mentally, at once or later, and happens at the workplace, because of the work the employer carries out, while the worker is sent on duty elsewhere, during a nursing mother’s breastfeeding time, or on the way to or from work in transport provided by the employer (Law 5510 art. 13). The employer must report it to the police at once and to the SGK within three working days (art. 13). An occupational disease (meslek hastalığı) is an illness or disability caused by the nature or the conditions of the work; the SGK Health Board must establish it (art. 14). The SGK pays a daily allowance during temporary incapacity, a pension for permanent incapacity and, after a death, survivors’ pensions (art. 16).

The employer must take every measure needed for health and safety at work (TBK art. 417/2). Claims for death or bodily injury caused by its breach of the law or the contract follow the rules on contractual liability (art. 417/3). They may cover treatment costs, lost earnings, loss of working capacity and damage to economic prospects; after a death, funeral costs and the loss of those the deceased supported (art. 53–54). The judge may also grant moral damages to the injured worker and, after a serious injury or a death, to the worker’s relatives (art. 56). The general limitation period for contractual claims is ten years (art. 146).

If the accident or disease resulted from the employer’s intent or a breach of health-and-safety rules, the SGK recovers its payments from the employer, up to what the worker could have claimed (Law 5510 art. 21). These damages claims need no prior mediation, and besides the usual venues they may be brought where the accident or the damage occurred or where the injured worker lives (Law 7036 art. 3/3, 6/3).

Mediation, then the labour court

Mediation is a precondition for suing over a worker’s or employer’s receivables and compensation based on the law, an individual contract or a collective agreement, and for reinstatement. Since September 2023 it also covers actions to annul an objection to enforcement, for a negative declaration and for restitution concerning such claims. A claim filed without it is dismissed on procedural grounds (Law 7036 art. 3/1–2). From the application until the final report, limitation is suspended and time-bar periods do not run (art. 3/17). A party who misses the first meeting without a valid excuse bears half of the court costs the other side would owe, even if it later wins, and receives only half of the statutory attorney’s fee (art. 3/12, as amended in November 2024).

The labour court (iş mahkemesi) has a single judge; where there is none, the civil court of first instance hears the case (art. 2). A venue agreement that departs from the statutory venues is void (art. 6).

Deadlines in one place

Mistakes that cost workers their claims

• Going straight to court. A money or reinstatement claim filed without mediation is dismissed on procedural grounds (Law 7036 art. 3/2).
• Counting from the last working day. The month to apply to a mediator runs from the day the notice of dismissal was served, even while the notice period is being worked (Labour Act art. 20).
• Resigning on the wrong terms. A resignation without a ground listed in Law 1475 art. 14 gives no severance pay. A just cause based on immoral or dishonest conduct must be used within six working days of learning of it (Labour Act art. 26), and a worker who leaves without notice owes notice pay (art. 17).
• Missing the first mediation meeting. The absent party bears half of the other side’s court costs even if it later wins, and is awarded only half of the statutory attorney’s fee (Law 7036 art. 3/12).
• Not applying to return. A worker whose dismissal is found invalid but who does not apply to the employer within 10 working days of service of the final judgment is treated as validly dismissed (Labour Act art. 21).
• Signing a release on the last day. A release (ibraname) of a worker’s claims is void unless it is in writing, made at least one month after the contract ended, states the type and amount of each claim, and the full amount is paid through a bank (TBK art. 420).

Documents to prepare

• The employment contract and any amendments; the notice of dismissal or KEP message, with the date it was served.
• Any request for a defence, and the defence given.
• Payslips and bank records of wage payments; records of working hours, overtime, bonuses and annual leave.
• The social-security service record (SGK hizmet dökümü, from e-Devlet).
• Names and contact details of witnesses; relevant e-mails and messages.
• For a work accident: the accident report, medical reports and the SGK notification.
• After a failed mediation: the final mediation report, which must be filed with the claim (Law 7036 art. 3/2).
• A power of attorney if you will act through a representative from abroad (giving a power of attorney from the UK).