The nature of the work undertaken by the party to the principal defines the status of the relationship between the parties and the employment status.

In this respect, if the relationship is defined as an employment agreement according to Law No 4857, the ("Labor Code") (published in the Official Gazette dated June 10, 2003, and numbered 25134) (the “Labor Code”) and met the conditions under the Labor Code, the statuses of the parties proving their service to the principal and the principal will be defined as employee and employer respectively. The Labor Code defines employees as persons who work under the scope of an employment contract and undertake to serve the employer in return for a salary. Accordingly, working individuals not falling under this definition shall not be deemed as employees as per the Labor Code.  Furthermore, provisions of the Labor Code shall not be applied to employment relations in marine and aerial transportation works, workplaces conducting agriculture and forestry work with less than 50 employees, house services or to apprentices, sportsmen and rehabilitated persons.

If the employment relationship between the parties does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Labor Code, the agreement between the parties will be characterized as a service agreement and shall be subject to the Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098) (published in the Official Gazette dated February 04, 2011 and numbered 27836) (the ”Code of Obligations”).

If the service provider is not dependent on the principal and is free to organize their own time and the provision of the services, the service provider will be regarded as self-employed and depending on the specifics of the agreement between the parties such agreement can be characterized as service agreement or agreement for work or mandate which will be subject to respective provisions of the Code of Obligations. 

Yes, there are different types of employment contracts in Turkey the most commonly used ones are explained herein-below:

• Indefinite Term Contract: If an employment contract is not executed for a specific period of time, it is considered to be for an indefinite term.
• Definite Term Contract: Definite Term Contracts are written contracts between an employee and an employer which are executed for a specific period provided that there are objective conditions, such as completion of a specific task or project.
• Part-Time Contract: A contract shall be deemed to be a part-time employment contract if the normal weekly working time of an employee is determined significantly less than a comparable employee working with a full-time employment contract. A part-time employee is an employee who works up to 2/3 of the working time of a comparable employee.
• Sub-Contracting: A "subcontractor" is a person/entity who assumes a contractual obligation and who undertakes to carry out (i)auxiliary/secondary works in relation to the production of goods and services in the workplace of a principal employer or (ii) a certain part of the main activity performed in such work due to the requirements of the enterprise and business together with the requirement of "specialization" for technological reasons and in both cases (iii) who employs its certain designated employees only and solely for the works assumed at that workplace. If the subcontracting relationship does not exist, the employees of the subcontractor shall be deemed as employees of the principal employer from the date their employment began. In a validly established sub-contracting relationship; the principal employer and subcontractor shall be jointly liable against the subcontractor’s employees who are assigned work at the principal employer’s workplace for the obligations of the subcontractor arising from the Labor Code, individual employment agreements or collective bargaining agreement.
• Temporary Employment Contract: Temporary employment contracts can be established on the condition that the employee is employed through a private employment agency subject to the conditions stipulated under Article 7 of the Labor Code, or if an employee is assigned by a holding or a group company to work in another subsidiary of the same group or holding companies on a temporary basis.
• Remote Work Contract: Pursuant to Article 14 of the Labor Code, defined as a written employment contract whereby employees perform their work within the scope of the working organization established by the employer at home or remotely by means of technological communication instruments outside the workplace. (Associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working implementations have become widespread and thus a regulation in this respect has been enacted on March 10, 2021, upon its publication in the Official Gazette on the same date with issue number 31419 under Remote Work Regulation)

In principle, there is no form requirement in order to have a valid employment contract. However, the employment contracts with a period of 1 year or more shall be made in written form. On the other hand, certain provisions of the employment contract may be invalid to the extent those are contrary to the imperative provisions of the laws especially the ones of the Labor Code, having the protective nature for the employees. Even though it depends on the content of the respective provision, the invalidity of such provision generally affects the validity of such provision and does not invalidate the entire employment contract in principle. The employment contract continues to be applied to the employee with the applicable provisions. This relies on the general principle of severability provided under Article 27 of the Code of Obligations that the invalidity of a part of a(n) (employment) contract does not invalidate the whole agreement, but if a(n) (employment) contract cannot be concluded without invalid provisions, the entire (employment) contract shall be invalid.

In accordance with Article 5 of the Labor Code, the part-time employee cannot be discriminated against due to the reason of being a part-time employee unless a justifying ground exists. Pursuant to Article 13/2 of the Labor Code, salary and the other monetary benefits of the part-time employee are paid pro-rata to full-time employees.

Yes, Article 429 of the Code of Obligations applies to the assignment of the employment contract. In accordance with Article 429, the service contract may be permanently assigned to another employer only with the written consent of the employee. With the assignment contract, the assignee becomes the new employer of the assigned employee whereby all rights and obligations under the employment contract shall be transferred to the assignee. The assignment of the employment contract changes the employer and the workplace of the employee. In terms of the rights of the employee depending on the duration of service, the start date of employment with the assignor employer is taken into account. Furthermore, a temporary assignment is also possible in accordance with Article 7 of the Labor Code in such a case a temporary employment relationship will be established under a written Temporary Employment Contract.

In accordance with Article 6 of the Labor Code, the transfer of the workplace does not constitute justification for termination. The transferor or transferee employer cannot terminate the employment contract solely due to the transfer of the workplace or a part of the workplace. The employee has no right to stop the transfer of the workplace or to object to the transfer.

Pursuant to Applicable Article 14 of the Abrogated Labor Law (published in the Official Gazette dated September 1, 1971, and numbered 13943) (Law No. 1475)*, in case of transfer of workplace, severance pay is calculated over the sum of the employment periods of employment contracts at the workplace(s) commencing from the very first date of employment. Both employers are responsible for severance payments in case of transfer of the workplace. However, the responsibility of the transferor employer is limited to the period during which it has employed the employee and to the amount of the level of the salary paid to the employee at the time of such transfer. Accordingly, the transferor shall only be liable for the period until the transfer date for the severance payment of the employee even if such severance payment has arisen due to termination after the transfer date.

Furthermore, as per Article 6 of the Labor Law, the transferor and the transferee shall be jointly responsible for debts accrued prior to the transfer and which are due and payable on the date of transfer (e.g. overtime payments, unpaid salaries). However, the liability of the transferor shall be limited to 2 years following the date of transfer.

*Said article is currently applicable in accordance with provisional Article 6 of the Labor Code.

No. In employment relationships where the employee is working under a limited liability company (i.e. a joint-stock company or limited company), the employer shall be the company, not the shareholders. Accordingly in the event of a change of control by virtue of the transfer of shares, the employer would remain to be the same (i.e. company). Therefore, their employee has no right to object to the transaction. On the other hand, in case of complete or partial demergers, a special provision in the Turkish Commercial Code applies. Pursuant to Article 178 of the Turkish Commercial Code in such cases, the employee’s consent is required to be obtained and the consenting employee's employment agreements shall be transferred to the transferee employer together with all the rights and obligations arising from such agreements.

If the employee refrains from granting the aforementioned consent, its employment contract shall be deemed to be terminated at the end of the legal dismissal period. Until then, the transferee employer and the employee shall be responsible for performing the employment contract.

Furthermore, both the transferor employer and the transferee employer shall be jointly liable for the receivables of employees which became due prior to the demerger and which will become due until the date of statutory termination of the employment contract or termination due to the employee’s objection. That being said, the employee shall be entitled to request the aforementioned receivables from both employers.

Employers are entitled to unilaterally amend the terms of employment composed of the employment contract itself or working conditions that are formed by virtue of the employment contracts, the personnel regulation attached to the employment contracts and similar sources or the practices of the workplace. However, material amendments that would adversely affect the rights of the employee can only be made by informing and receiving the approval of such employee in writing on the material change. Pursuant to Article 22 of the Labor Code, any amendments in working conditions, which are not made in compliance with such form and which are not accepted in writing by the employees within six business days prior to the effective date of such material adverse change, shall not be binding upon such employees.

If the employees do not accept the proposed (adverse) amendment in working conditions within this period, the employer may terminate the employment contract, provided that it complies with the notice period and explains in writing that the amendment is based on a justified ground or that there is another justified ground for termination. In this case, the employee in question shall be entitled to file a lawsuit in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Labor Code.

Turkey is not an employment-at-will jurisdiction.

A similar concept is provided under Article 15 of the Labor Code with a probationary period. Pursuant to Article 15 of the Labor Code both employer and employee are entitled to determine a probationary period in the employment contracts up to 2 months, whereby the employment contract can be terminated without notification and compensation. Please refer to the below question for the termination rights of the employer.

It should be noted that the termination rights of an employer may differ in different kinds of employment contracts. 

Pursuant to the Labor Code, an indefinite term employment contract can be terminated by the employer either (i) with immediate effect in case there is a “just cause” pursuant to Article 25 (i.e. (i) health reasons, (ii) events contrary to ethical rules and to goodwill, (iii) occurrence of a compelling event preventing the employee from working in the workplace for more than one week, and (iv) absence of the employee exceeding the applicable notice period as a result of his detention and arrest.) without payment of any compensation or (ii) by giving a termination notice period pursuant to Article 17 of the Labor Code by paying a termination compensation. Furthermore, if the employee is subject to job security as stipulated under Article 18 of the Labor Code, employers must provide a valid ground in order to terminate an indefinite employment contract.

Indefinite Term Employment Contract: Indefinite term employment contracts can be terminated (i) by giving termination notice (or with payment in lieu of notice) pursuant to Article 17 of the Labor Code or (ii) by immediate effect without payment of any compensation in case there exists a "just cause" for immediate termination pursuant to Article 25 of the Labor Code (i.e. (i) health reasons, (ii) events contrary to ethical rules and to goodwill, (iii) occurrence of a compelling event preventing the employee from working in the workplace for more than one week, and (iv) absence of the employee exceeding the applicable notice period as a result of his detention and arrest.).

In addition, in case relevant conditions are met, the employees shall be under the scope of job security regulations and accordingly, the employer will be obliged to provide a valid reason in order to duly terminate the employment contract pursuant to Article 18 of the Labor Code. Conditions to be subject to job security are as follows; (i) the employee must have at least six months of experience, (ii) the employee must be working at a workplace employing 30 or more employees, (iii) the employee must not have the status of an employer representative or employer assistant managing the entire enterprise and (iv) the employee must not have the status of an employer representative managing the entire workplace and having the authority of recruiting and dismissing employees; although he is not managing the entire enterprise.

In case of invalid termination; the employees shall be entitled to claim (i) notice pay - if the employer wants to terminate the employment contract without waiting until the expiry of the notice period the employer shall pay an amount of salary corresponding to the notice period, (ii) severance pay - rate of 30 days' salary for each full year worked since the date of employment subject to an upper threshold which is currently gross TL 7,638.96 for the first half of 2021, (iii) an amount of salary corresponding accrued but not used annual paid leave days, (iv) if any, contractual compensation, and (v) if any, payments arising from workplace practices. Needless to say, if the termination or liquidation occurs before the payroll cycle, the amount of salary corresponding to the days worked shall also be paid to the employees.

Please also note that for the calculation of notice pay, in addition to the base salary, all additional monetary benefits, and benefits that can be measured in monetary terms shall be taken into consideration.

Furthermore, the employee who is benefiting from job security and whose employment contract is terminated if legally pursued reinstatement and has not been re-employed can claim compensation for a salary of 4 to 8 months. In addition, the court may decide payment of unemployment compensation amounting to 4 months’ salary of the employee.

Employees who are not in the scope of job security may claim the amount he/she can earn as compensation if the notification period of termination was complied with – if the termination is invalid due to non-compliance to the notice periods. In addition the employee may claim compensation for malicious intent 3 times the salary for the notice period; in any case which shall not exceed 6 months’ salary of the employee.

Pursuant to Article 21 of the Labor Code, at the end of the mediation activity, in the event that the parties agree on the employment of the employee; (i) the date of the starting date, (ii) the monetary amount of the salaries and other rights regulated in the third paragraph, (iii) in case the employee is not employed, the monetary amount of the compensation regulated in the second paragraph must be determined.

Definite Term Employment Contract: In accordance with Article 438 of the Code of Obligations, in case of failure to comply with the term of the contract for the termination of a definite term employment contract, the employee may claim the amount he/she could have earned until the expiry date of the employment contract as termination compensation. In addition, depending on the specifics of the case, the judge may decide on the payment of a separate compensation by the employer to the employee which shall not exceed the employee's 6 months salary of the employee. Kindly be reminded that if there is a just ground for termination; the employer shall not pay any compensation.

Whistleblowing is not directly regulated under the Labor Code but employees are under the obligation of loyalty against the employer. Employee’s obligation of loyalty is regulated under Article 396 of the Code of Obligations, according to which the employee is obliged to perform the work he/she has undertaken diligently and to act faithfully in the protection of the rightful interests of the employer. On the other hand, the employee’s reporting of any unlawfulness of the employer is also guaranteed as a fundamental right. The conditions for legal protection for whistleblowing are as follows; (i) if there is an overriding public interest, (ii) if there is accurate and important information, (iii) it must be notified to relevant authorities within the workplace before it is notified to the legal authorities and (iv) the employee should not act with personal enmity. Furthermore, pursuant to the ILO Convention no: 158 Article 5 sub-paragraph [c]; reporting the employer to authorities and initiating a legal proceeding with the claim of unlawfulness is not a valid reason for termination. Likewise, the Court of Cassation applies this principle in its decisions.

In the decisions of the Court of Cassation, as a result of the employee's dependency obligation arising from the employment contract, it is generally accepted that the employer has a comprehensive examination and audit authority on the computers provided by the employer to the employee within the business relationship. According to the Court of Cassation, the employer can check whether non-business activities are carried out on these computers or if insulting correspondence has been made to the employer. What is important here is to inform the employee in order to carry out these inspections under the written company policies which are acknowledged by the employee in writing for evidentiary purposes.

In accordance with Article 5 of the Labor Code, no discrimination can be made in the business relationship. The principle of non-discrimination is considered among the obligations of the employer. The employer is obliged not to act differently unless it is justified and objective. If the employer acts in contradiction to the principle of non-discrimination, the employee may claim an appropriate compensation of up to 4 months' salary and the right of his deprivation. The obligation to prove that the principle of discrimination is violated belongs to the employee.

Annual Paid Leave: Unless a longer annual leave period is provided under the employment contract, the employee should be granted annual leave periods as stipulated under Article 53 of the Labor Code, the duration of the annual paid leave cannot be less than: an employee who works (i)1-5 years 14 days, (ii) 5-15 (not including) years 20 days, (iii) more than 15 years 26 days. However, the annual paid leave cannot be less than 20 days for employees who are 18 years old or younger and employees who are 50 years old and older. As per Article 56 of the Labor Code; any other paid or unpaid leaves or rest and sick leaves granted to the employee by the employer cannot be deducted from the annual paid leave and any national holiday, weekly break and general holiday shall not be included in the calculation of the days for the annual paid leave.

Public Holidays: There are 9 public holidays per year (the number of holiday days may be more than one day). Pursuant to Article 44 of the Labor Code, parties can decide on working on public holidays under collective bargaining agreements or employment contracts, otherwise, for working on public holidays employee's consent is required.

Maternity Leave: In principle, maternity leave shall be in total of sixteen weeks, eight of which must be taken before and eight of which must be taken after giving birth. A total of one and a half hours a day is allowed for female employees to breastfeed their children under the age of one, to be counted from daily working time. Maternity leave is granted to one of the spouses who adopt the child under the age of three from the date of actual delivery of the child to the family.

Casual Leave: Employees are further entitled to take up to three days leave for marriage or in the event of the death of a parent, spouse, sibling or child.

Paternity Leave: If the employee's spouse gives birth, five days of paid leave is given to the employee.

Sick Leave: Employees are entitled to take paid sick leave of up to one week upon the production of a medical report.

No changes were made in the last 12 months regarding leave benefits.

There is no proposed legislation that employers should be aware of that will impact leave benefits.

During the term of the employment, employees are subject to a non-compete obligation deriving from the employee's duty of fidelity pursuant to Article 396 of the Code of Obligations and exists in every employment contract regardless of the existence of such clause.

The Code of Obligations in Articles 444 and 445 regulates the non-compete obligation on the post-termination period by imposing a number of conditions that must be satisfied; (i) there shall be a risk that the employee knows the employer's customers and confidential information and that accordingly the employee may cause considerable loss to the employer by using such information, (ii) non-competition clauses must be reasonable with respect to their term, geographical application and the nature of work, (iii) a reasonable duration for a non-compete provision will differ according to the practice in the relevant market: as per the Code of Obligations, the term of non-competition clause cannot exceed two years, unless there are specific circumstances justifying a longer-term, (iv) prohibition on competition must be in writing. In the event of the occurrence of the grounds stated under Article 25 of the Labor Code which is exhaustive, the employer has the right to terminate the employment immediately. 

However, in case the employer would not prefer to terminate the employment or the act of misconduct of the employee is not one of the exhaustive grounds specified by the Labor Code, then the employer may apply a disciplinary sanction to the employee. Some of these sanctions are as follows; warning, censure, change of work and workplace, temporary dismissal [but the employer must pay the salary to the employee during this time], and dismissal. A valid ground is required to implement a disciplinary sanction to an employee. Pursuant to Article 420 of the Code of Obligations, the penalty only stipulated against the employee in the employment contracts is invalid. However, it can be understood from the decisions of the Court of Cassation, that the non-compete agreement is an exception to Article 420 of the Code of Obligations. The employer may limit the prohibition of competition to a specific region or sector.

Pursuant to Article 396 of the Code of Obligations, the employee cannot use the information he/she has learned while working, especially production and business secrets for his/her own benefit or disclosure to others during the continuity of the service relationship. To the extent necessary for the protection of the employer’s justifiable interests, the employee is obliged to keep secrets after the termination of the service relationship.

Any post-termination of disclosure by the employee can be regulated by the employment contract, through a confidentiality clause or by executing a separate "confidentiality agreement". There is no specific regulation for post-employment confidentiality agreements. In order for an employer to make a confidentiality agreement; (i) the employee should know the employer's trade secrets and (ii) the employee needs to know customers.

In accordance with Article 22 of the Labor Code, the employer can only make a substantial change in the working conditions of the employee by notifying the employee in writing. Changes that are not accepted by the employee within 6 business days shall not bind the employee. Please see our above explanation on Article 22 of the Labor Code. In this case, the employee may sue in accordance with Articles 17 and 21 of the Labor Code.

Yes, all employees are entitled to benefit from retirement allowance provided that they are registered to the social security system for a certain number of days by paying social security premiums and they are above a certain age in accordance with Law No. 5510 as part of the mandatory social security system in Turkey. For such purposes, employers should pay social security contributions that they are obliged to pay as per the provisions of Law No. 5510.

Furthermore, there is an individual retirement system mandatorily applied to workplaces with at least 5 employees in accordance with Article 6 of the Regulation on the Rules and Procedures Regarding the Automatic Integration of Employees to Individual Retirement Plan by Employers (published in the Official Gazette dated January 2, 2017, and numbered 29936). Accordingly, employers shall pay a contribution fee to retirement companies each month which shall be deducted from the monthly salary of employees below 45 ages. However, the employee has the right to exit the system within 2 months of the entrance date to the same.

In Turkiye, a system is adopted in which Labor Code not only regulates the Labor relations of the employees during the period they work but is intertwined with the social security law which protects them when they are faced with any social risk and their income decreases or disappears.

Unemployment Insurance: Employees working under an employer with an employment contract are in the scope of unemployment insurance. The conditions that the employees must meet in order to receive unemployment insurance are as follows; (i) the premiums must be paid continually for the last 120 days before the end of the employment contract, (ii) a total of at least 600 premium days have been worked out in the last 3 years and (iii) the employment contract must not have been terminated by the employee's own will or flaw.

Employee Compensation Due to Work Accident:  If one of the conditions stated in Article 13 of Law No. 5510 are met and the injury or death of the employee occurs in an employment relationship employee can receive employee compensation.

Invalidity Insurance: If the employee loses at least 60% of his working power after entering the working life and the system of the Social Security Institution, he is deemed disabled. In order to benefit from invalidity insurance, the following are required; (i) have been insured for at least 10 years and have a total of 1800 premium days and (ii) employee must quit; if he is self-employed he must close or transfer his workplace.

Pecuniary Salary Support: Pursuant to Provisional Article 24 of the Unemployment Insurance Law (published in the Official Gazette dated September 8, 1999 and numbered 23810), employees who are given unpaid leave by the employer pursuant to Provisional Article 10 of the Labor Code, whose employment contract is terminated after March 15, 2020, within the scope of Article 51 and who cannot benefit from unemployment allowance pursuant to other provisions of said law, daily pecuniary salary support of TRY 47.70 from the Unemployment Insurance Fund has been determined. Pecuniary salary support will be supplied for the period of unpaid leave or unemployment within this period provided that the person does not receive an old-age pension from any social security institution and does not exceed the period that termination cannot be made in Provisional Article 10 of the Labor Code.

No, the employer cannot specify a mandatory retirement age in the employment contract. 

If there is re-work after retirement, the Social Security Institution should be notified. There is no deduction from the retirement pension of a retired employee who works under an employer in an employer's workplace. Also, there is no deduction from the retirement pension of the retired person who opened a business.

There is no established view on an employer’s enforcement of vaccination obligations over its employees and this is currently a controversial issue.

Pursuant to Article 17/2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, the physical integrity of the person is inviolable except for medical necessities and situations written in the law. A person cannot be subjected to scientific and medical experiments without her/his consent. In case of epidemic diseases mentioned in Article 57 of Public Health Law (published in the Official Gazette dated May 6, 1930, and numbered 1489) (Law No. 1593) in Turkey, serum or vaccine inhibition can be implemented to the patients or those exposed to the disease in accordance with Article 72/2 of Public Health Law in Turkey. However, the COVID-19 epidemic is not included among the diseases in the relevant article. In this context, in the absence of medical necessity and legal regulation, compulsory medical intervention can only be performed in accordance with the consent of the person. Therefore, one might argue that if the employee does not have consent for vaccination, he/she shall not be forced to be vaccinated by the employer.

On the other hand, pursuant to Articles 4 and 19 of the Occupational Health and Safety Law (published in the Official Gazette dated June 30, 2012, and numbered 28339) (Law no. 6331), employers are obliged to ensure occupational health and safety of employees whereas employees are obliged not to endanger the health and safety of themselves and other employees affected by their actions or work in line with the training they receive on occupational health and safety and the instructions of the employer. Therefore, within the context of occupational health and safety measures, it can be argued that employers may oblige their employees to be vaccinated. 

As this a controversial issue and due to lack of court precedents it is not currently possible to justify the termination grounds and thus determine the existence of termination right of the employer in case the employee rejects to be vaccinated.

In the absence of a government order to shut down the workplaces, an employer has the right to require the employees to return to work in the office as long as they do not work under a remote employment contract.