Employee Rights in Türkiye: a comprehensive guide under Labour Act No. 4857

Wages are the consideration for the employee's work and must be paid at least once a month (Labour Act No. 4857, Art. 32). Payment through banks is mandatory for workplaces above a certain headcount; cash payments create evidentiary disadvantages for the employee.

An employee whose wages remain unpaid for twenty days after the due date, absent force majeure, may refrain from performing work; this does not constitute a strike even if it becomes collective. The employee may also terminate the contract for just cause with immediate effect under Article 24/II-e and thereby qualify for severance pay.

Weekly working time is, as a rule, 45 hours (Art. 63). Work exceeding this is overtime and is paid at fifty percent above the normal hourly rate.

Overtime may not exceed 270 hours per year and generally requires the employee's written consent. Instead of premium pay, the employee may request one hour and thirty minutes of free time for each overtime hour.

How is overtime proven?

• Workplace entry-exit (access control) records and turnstile data
• Attendance sheets, shift schedules and signature logs
• Timestamps on corporate e-mails and messaging
• Vehicle tracking, card reader and site entry records
• Testimony of colleagues employed in the same period

Every employee who has worked at the workplace for at least one year is entitled to annual paid leave (Art. 53); the probation period counts towards this year.

Annual leave may not, as a rule, be divided; by agreement it may be split into at most three parts, one of which must be no shorter than ten days. Weekly rest and public holidays falling within the leave are not counted as leave days.

The right to annual leave cannot be waived. Upon termination, unused leave is paid as leave pay based on the final wage; the limitation period is five years from termination.

Severance pay (Art. 14 of former Act No. 1475) is due to an employee with at least one year of service with the same employer where the contract ends in circumstances prescribed by law. Thirty days' gross "dressed" wage is payable for each full year of service; partial years are prorated.

Grounds giving rise to severance pay

• Termination by the employer without just cause
• Justified termination by the employee for health, morality or work-stoppage reasons (Art. 24)
• Male employee leaving for compulsory military service
• Female employee resigning within one year of her marriage
• Leaving to receive old-age, retirement or disability pension or a lump-sum payment
• Completion of insurance period and premium-day requirements other than age
• Payment to legal heirs in the event of the employee's death

Payments included in the "dressed" wage

Regularly paid bonuses, meal and travel allowances, fuel, housing, education and health benefits — that is, continuing benefits — are included. Incidental payments (one-off premiums, overtime pay) are excluded.

The party terminating an indefinite-term contract must observe a notice period based on length of service (Art. 17). A party failing to do so pays notice pay; both employee and employer may claim it.

Notice periods may be increased by contract but not reduced. During the notice period the employee must be granted at least two hours of paid job-search leave per day.

No notice pay arises where the employee terminates for just cause, but the right to severance is preserved. Where the employer terminates for just cause under Art. 25/II, the employee receives neither.

Employees must be granted an uninterrupted weekly rest of at least twenty-four hours within each seven-day period; wages are paid in full even though no work is performed.

Where no work is performed on national and public holidays, wages are paid in full; if work is performed, one additional day's pay is added for each such day.

Breaks do not count as working time. For work falling within the night period, daily working time may not exceed 7.5 hours.

Three conditions must be met simultaneously to benefit from job-security provisions:

What happens at the end of the case?

• If the termination is found invalid, the employee must apply to the employer within 10 business days of service of the final judgment
• If the employer does not reinstate within one month, job-security compensation of 4 – 8 months' wages is payable
• In addition, up to 4 months of idle-time wages and related social benefits are paid
• If the employee is reinstated, advance notice and severance payments are set off

For a termination to be valid there must be a reason arising from the requirements of the undertaking, the workplace or the work, or from the employee's capacity or conduct; the employer must state the reason clearly and precisely in writing. The burden of proof lies with the employer.

An occupational accident (Art. 13, Law No. 5510) is an event occurring while the insured is at the workplace, because of the work being carried out, or while sent elsewhere on duty, which renders the insured physically or mentally disabled.

Heads of compensation that may be claimed

Income granted by the Social Security Institution is set off against damages, and the Institution may seek recourse from a culpable employer. Depending on fault, criminal investigations for negligent injury or homicide may also be conducted against the employer and its representatives.

Turkish contracting companies operate across a wide geography — from Russia to Qatar, from Libya to Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia. Tens of thousands of Turkish workers on these sites face unpaid wages, overtime and severance, working conditions different from those agreed, and occupational accidents. These cases are our firm's core area of expertise.

Which law applies and where is the case filed?

Under established Court of Cassation case law, where an employment relationship is formed in Türkiye between a Turkish employer and a Turkish employee, Turkish law applies and Turkish courts have jurisdiction in most cases, even though the work was performed abroad. Even if foreign law was chosen in the contract, the employee cannot be deprived of the minimum protection afforded by the law of the habitual place of work (Art. 27, Turkish Private International Law). The competent court is generally the labour court at the employer's registered seat.

Claims in foreign currency

Wages on overseas sites are commonly agreed in US dollars or euros. In that case severance and notice pay, overtime, weekly rest and public holiday claims may also be made in foreign currency. The claim must be expressly stated as a foreign-currency claim in the statement of claim; otherwise serious losses arise from exchange-rate differences.

Frequently encountered problems

Organic link and joint employment

Where an employee is assigned through different companies within the same group, the Court of Cassation applies the organic link and joint employment doctrines to hold group companies jointly liable for the claims. Common management, a shared address, a common trade-name group and personnel mobility are indicators of this link. This case law preserves recovery prospects where a subcontractor is in financial difficulty.

Evidence: which documents should you keep?

• Passport entry-exit records — prove the working period day by day (also obtainable from the migration authority)
• Work visas and residence permits — show how long you stayed in which country
• Site attendance sheets and shift schedules — the primary evidence of daily working hours
• Bank statements and foreign-currency transfers — decisive in establishing the real wage
• Flight tickets and travel documents — journeys arranged by the employer
• Assignment letters, the employment contract and its annexes — the written source of wages and benefits
• Site photographs, ID cards and helmet/badge cards — supporting evidence of actual work
• Contact details of colleagues on the same site — preparation for witness evidence

Periods worked abroad may be purchased as contributions under Law No. 3201 and counted towards retirement in Türkiye. For overseas construction workers this is as important as the claim for unpaid wages.

Who may purchase contributions?

• Turkish citizens working, or who have worked, abroad
• Those who were Turkish citizens by birth and later renounced citizenship (with permission)
• Individuals in respect of periods spent abroad as a housewife
• Surviving relatives of a deceased insured person, where they qualify as beneficiaries

How does the process work?

1. A service certificate showing the overseas working periods is obtained from the relevant foreign institution or consulate.
2. An application is made to the Social Security Institution; the period and the earnings base are selected.
3. The notified amount is paid within three months. Payment outside this period invalidates the arrangement.
4. A pension requires permanent return to Türkiye: the work abroad must have ended and any residence-based social assistance discontinued.

Limitation periods for employee claims generally run from the date the employment contract ends. Preclusive periods, by contrast, extinguish the right entirely once missed, and courts take them into account of their own motion.

For employee receivables and reinstatement claims, applying to a mediator is a precondition to litigation (Art. 3, Law No. 7036). Actions for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages arising from occupational accidents or diseases fall outside this scope and may be filed directly.

Steps of the process

1. Application: made to the mediation office at the counterparty's domicile or the place where the work is performed.
2. Appointment: the office appoints a mediator from the register and notifies the parties.
3. Meeting: the mediator concludes the process within three weeks of appointment, extendable by one week where necessary.
4. Outcome: where agreement is reached, the document bearing an enforceability annotation has the force of a judgment. Failing agreement, the final report allows the case to be filed.

You have left your job, or are considering it, and your claims remain unpaid. The steps to follow:

1. Collect your documents. Employment contract, payrolls, bank records, attendance sheets; for overseas work, passport and visa records. These are the foundation of a successful case.
2. Check the deadlines. One month for reinstatement, five years' limitation for receivables. Do not wait if a deadline is approaching.
3. Do not sign a waiver on your own. Documents titled "release" or "I have no remaining claims" cause serious loss of rights.
4. Obtain a preliminary calculation. Do not enter negotiations without knowing the approximate value of your claims.
5. Attend mediation prepared. Attending with a lawyer is decisive both in calculation and in negotiation.