Turkey Employment Law

An employee’s normal working hour in a week is 45 hours exclusive of overtime. An employee’s working time shall be divided equally by the days of the week worked at the workplace. 

Working time may be divided by the days of the week worked in different forms on condition but the employee’s daily working hours excluding break shall not exceed 11 hours. In this case, within a time period of 2 months, the average weekly working time of the employee shall not exceed 45 hours. This averaging period may be increased up to 4 months by collective agreement. This balancing (equalizing) period may be increased up to 4 months by collective agreement. 

An employee who performs work underground on coal, ore, and other non-metallic raw material extraction, or relates to mine-works construction, as well as employees working in geological exploration sites shall not work more than 7.5 hours per day or 37.5 hours per week.

The beginning and end of the daily working time and rest breaks shall be announced to employees at the workplace.

Statutory Hours of Work

Following are considered as statutory hours of work – 

• • • The time required for employees employed in mines, stone quarries, or any other underground or underwater work is considered a statutory hour of work.
    • The time necessary for the normal and regular transportation of groups of employees engaged in the construction, maintenance, repair, and alteration of railways, roads, and bridges to and from a workplace at a distance from their place of residence.
    • Travel Time – Time for transportation to and from the workplace which is not a requirement of the activity but is provided by the employer solely as a form of amenity shall not be regarded as part of the statutory working time.
    • Stand By Time – The time during which the employee has no work to perform pending the arrival of new work but remains at the employer’s premises.

Part-time Employee – If an employee’s weekly work hours are established at substantially less than the normal working hours (maximum 45 hours per week), such an employee is called a part-time employee. Part-time employees cannot work overtime or excessive time.

The following shall be considered as days worked – 

• • • • Duration which is deemed to be part of the working time although no work has been done, and any periods of holidays, with or without pay, either statutory or based on contract, 
      • Up to 3 days’ leave of absence in the event of the employee’s marriage and up to 5 days’ leave in the event of the death of the employee’s mother, father, spouse, brother or sister, and child,
      • Any leave granted by the employer and any sick leave based on a medical report, subject to a maximum of 1 week.

Article 13, 63, 66, 46 of the Turkish Labour Code

Compensatory Work – When working hours are less than normal hours due to force majeure, or on the days before or after national and public holiday or where the employee is given time off on the request, the employer may call upon compensatory work within 2 months in order to compensate for the time lost due to unworked periods. 

Such work shall not be considered overtime work or work at extra hours. Compensatory work shall not exceed 3 hours daily, and must not exceed the maximum daily working time in any case. Compensatory work shall not be carried out on holidays.  Article 64 of the Turkish Labour Code.

Shorter Working Hours – The employer who temporarily shortens the weekly working time or who temporarily suspends work wholly or partially due to a general economic crisis or force majeure must communicate this matter, along with the reasons, immediately to the Employment Organisation of Turkey and to the union signatory to the collective agreement if there is one. 

Due to the above-mentioned reasons which lead to suspension of work or shorter working hours for at least four weeks, employees shall be paid benefits for the shorter working time corresponding to the time not worked. Shorter working time shall not exceed the period during which force majeure was effective and in any case three months. Article 65 of the Turkish Labour Code.

On-Call Work – The time during which the employee who ought to be performing work within the scope of his duties in the workplace is sent on an errand for his employer or is employed by the employer in their household or office, instead of performing their own duties is considered to be working hour.

If the length of the employee’s working time has not been determined by the parties in terms of time periods such as a week, month, or year, the weekly working time is considered to have been fixed as 20 hours. If the daily working time has not been decided in the contract, the employer must engage the employee in work for a minimum of 4 consecutive hours at each call.

The employee is entitled to be paid for work irrespective of whether or not the employee engages in work during the time declared for on-call work. The employer who has the right to request the employee to perform his obligation to work on a call must intimate the employee at least 4 days in advance. The employee is obliged to perform work upon the call communicated to him within the said limit. Article 14 of the Turkish Labour Code.

Recordkeeping Requirements

Employers are required to keep a personal file of each employee that contains all requisite documents and records and if requested, employers must present the file to the relevant authorities upon request. Article 75 of the Turkish Labour Code.

Any work performed beyond 45 hours a week is considered as overtime. The employee shall not work more than 270 hours per year of overtime. The employee’s consent shall be required for overtime work.

The overtime hours, which is less than half an hour, would need to be rounded up to half an hour and the overtime hour, which is more than half an hour, would need to be rounded up to one hour.

Pay – An employee is entitled to receive at least 1.5 times the normal hourly rate.

An employee who performs overtime work underground on coal, ore, and other non-metallic raw material extraction, or relates to mine-works construction, as well as employees working in geological exploration sites shall be remunerated at the rate of 100% on the normal wage.

Extra Hours

When the weekly working time has been set by contract at less than 45 hours, works that exceed the average weekly working time and which may last only up to 45 hours weekly are deemed to be extra hours. 

Extra Hours Pay

In work at extra hours, each extra hour shall be remunerated at 1.25 times the normal hourly rate.

Time off in Lieu of Pay

If an employee has worked overtime or at extra hours, rather than receiving overtime pay he may use, as time off of 1 hour and 30 minutes for each hour worked in overtime and  1 hour and 15 minutes for each extra hour worked. The employee shall use the free time to which he is entitled within 6 months, within his working time, and without any deduction on wages. Article 41 of the Turkish Labour Code.

Compulsory Overtime Work

An employee may be required to work overtime either in the case of breakdown, whether actual or threatened, in the case of urgent work to be performed on machinery, tool or equipment, or in the case for force majeure, provided it shall not exceed the time necessary to enable the normal operating of the workplace.  In such cases employees must be allowed adequate time for rest.  Article 42 of the Turkish Labour Code.

Overtime work during Emergency

During the periods of mobilization, if necessary and limited only by that period, extend the daily hours of work up to the maximum of which the employees working in a workplace serving the needs of national defense are capable, according to the nature of the operations and urgency of the needs in question. For both compulsory and emergency overtime work the same pay rate applies as given under overtime pay and extra hours pay. Article 43 of the Turkish Labour Code. 

Night work is defined as work performed between 20:00 and 06:00, with a maximum duration of 11 hours. However, the regular limit for night work is 7.5 hours. If an employee works more than 7.5 hours during this period, they are entitled to overtime pay.

For jobs requiring both day and night shifts, employees should alternate between night and day work in a manner that ensures no more than one week of night shifts is followed by a week of day shifts. Alternatively, shifts may alternate on a two-week basis.

When a work period spans both day and night, if more than half of the working hours fall within the night period, the entire period is classified as night work.

Example – Work performed between 17:00 and 02:00, or between 24:00 and 09:00, is classified as night work. In contrast, work done between 14:00 and 23:00, or between 03:00 and 12:00, does not qualify as night work.

Overtime Pay – Employees working more than 7.5 hours of night work are entitled to a 50% overtime premium, regardless of whether their total weekly hours exceed 45. This is in accordance with Article 69 of the Turkish Labour Code.

Employees are entitled to minimum rest periods (lunch and rest breaks) which are not included in the working hours and are unpaid. The granted rest period varies based on working hours, as below: 

• • • 15 minutes for 4 hours of work or less;
    • 30 minutes for 4 to 7.5 hours (including the 7.5th  hours) of work; and
    • 1 hour for more than 7.5 hours of work 

Employees are entitled to these minimum durations and cannot be denied the breaks. Breaks may be taken at the same or varying times by the employees at the workplace. Article 68 of the Turkish Labour Code. 

Daily Rest

An employee is entitled to a rest period for at least 11 hours between the end of one shift and the beginning of another. Article 69 of the Turkish Labour Code.

Weekly Rest Period

An employee will be entitled to an uninterrupted weekly rest period of at least 24 hours in a 7 day uninterrupted time period, provided they have worked on the days preceding the weekly rest day. The weekly legal holiday is Sunday. Half-day of leave is granted in addition to Sundays to employees working in radiological clinics.

If the employer suspends work, without being obliged to do so by force majeure or economic reasons, suspends work on one or more days of the week, these days on which no work has been done shall be considered as days worked in order to be entitled to the paid weekly rest day. 

If work is suspended in a workplace for more than 1 week on account of force majeure, the wages payable to employees for days not worked due to force majeure shall be paid also for the weekly rest day.

Sundays are considered weekly holidays which must begin at the latest 1 pm on Saturdays and last at least 35 hours. The provisions of the Weekend Holiday Law on Saturday are not applicable to shops and stores where shopping is made to meet essential needs such as eating, drinking, and dressing.

Pay for Work on Weekly Rest – An employee who works on a weekly rest day will be entitled to a premium of 1.5 times the daily wage of that day. 

Pay for Overtime on Weekly Rest – An employee who works beyond 7.5 hours on a weekly rest day will be entitled to a premium of 1.5 times the daily wage of that day. 

Overtime Pay when Weekends and Holidays fall on the same day – The overtime wage needs to include the one full-day public holiday wage and the overtime wage (the increased amount by 50%.) Accordingly, the overtime wage would need to be 2.5 times of daily wage. Article 46 of the Turkish Labour Code.