Termination of Employment under Turkish Law
Introduction
In principle, indefinite-term employment contracts can be ended by serving notice on the other party by the terminating party.” The parties to such contracts do not agree on the length of the contract, hence the employment contract does not have an end date. However, as previously stated, the parties cannot be expected to be bound by an employment contract for an indeterminate amount of time. As a result, the LC permits both the employer and the employee to terminate an indefinite-term employment contract on notice, as long as the notice period is followed.
Notice Periods of Termination
The contract of employment ceases after the notice period, which is regulated in Article 17 of the LC in accordance with the employee’s seniority, whenever a termination notice is served by the employer or the employee. The contract will expire, according to this report;
In the case of an employee who has been employed for less than six months, after the second week following the termination notice;
After the fourth week following the notice of termination, in the instance of an employee whose employment lasted six months to one and a half years
After the sixth week following the notice of termination in the case of an employee who has worked for one and a half to three years;
At the conclusion of the eighth week following the notice of termination in the case of an employee who has worked for more than three years.
The above-mentioned termination notice durations are the minimums, and the parties are not permitted to lower or eliminate them from the employment contract. Unless the contract is terminated, the parties may agree to extend these terms. It hinders parties from using their right to sue. The purpose of the termination notice period is to give the employee time to locate other work while also giving the business time to hire new employees. For this purpose, employees have the right to look for new work for at least two hours every day.
On the other side, the employer has the option of terminating the employment contract by prepaying the employee’s wage for the notice period. In such instances, the parties do not need to wait until the notice time has expired before terminating the contract. The contract is considered canceled on the day of prepayment, according to Supreme Court Decisions.
Termination of an employee’s employment contract that benefits the employee’s job security
Overarching
Although both the employer and the employee have the right to terminate the employment contract by notice, the employer must have a sufficient reason to do so when the employee is within the scope of employment security.
Individual Labor Law in Turkey
Employee job security is a concept aimed at preventing employees from losing their employment. Employees might feel more secure about their future and less afraid about losing their pay, which is their primary source of income for them and their families if they have job security.
Employment Security’s Scope
Article 18 of the LC regulates the scope of employment security. As a result, if the employee works under an indefinite-term contract in an entity with at least 30 workers and has at least six months of seniority, the employer must depend on a solid basis to terminate the contract of employment.
To be eligible for employment security, the employee must first operate under the scope of the LC or the Code on Regulation of Employee-Employer Relationships in the Press Sector1 (number 5953). As a result, government servants or workers operating within the scope of TCO do not have job security.
Second, in order for an employee to have job security, the enterprise must have at least 30 employees. When an employer has more than one workplace in the same field of activity, the total number of employees in all of these workplaces is used to calculate the number of employees (LC Art. 18/4). When calculating the total number of employees, all employees must be considered, regardless of the type of employment contract they are bound by. Temporary employees or subcontractor employees, on the other hand, are not considered because they work for a separate company.
Finally, the employee must have worked for the company for at least six months to be eligible for job security. The employee’s six-month minimum seniority will be determined by adding his or her length of service at one or more of the same employer’s workplaces (LC Art. 18/4). The workplaces, in contrast to the second criterion, may be in distinct branches of activity. Employees working at subterranean operations, on the other hand, are exempt from the need for six-month minimum seniority (LC Art. 18/1).
Fourth, the individual must be employed under an indefinite contract of employment. Employees on a fixed-term contract are not covered by job security provisions.
Finally, job security does not apply to the employer’s representative and his or her assistants who are authorized to manage the entire company, as well as the employer’s representatives who are permitted to manage the entire workplace as well as recruit and fire employees.
Termination on Reasonable Grounds
Article 18 of the LC specifies the legal reasons for terminating a contract of employment. As a result, the employee’s ineptitude, behaviors, and causes resulting from the company, workplace, or labor are all-sufficient grounds for terminating a contract of employment.
To begin with, employee incompetence means that the employee is less productive than a comparable employee doing a similar job; or that the employee is ineligible for the job; or that the employee is incapable of learning and self-development; or that the employee underperforms in proportion to his or her abilities 147.
Second, when the employee’s behavior is not to the point where the contractual connection becomes uncomfortable for the employer, but his or her actions disturb the job or have an adverse effect on the task. These behaviors are judged to be a solid reason for terminating the employment contract48.
Finally, factors such as a drop in sales, orders, or demand; an economic downturn; or the adoption of new technologies or working techniques by the company are all deemed sufficient grounds for employers to terminate the employment contract. 49,
Even if an employer may depend on one of these legal reasons for termination, according to the “ultimate remedy” principle (ultima-ratio / son çare ilkesi), all other conceivable procedures that would maintain the work connection must have been explored before terminating the contract 150. Otherwise, the termination of the employment contract will be regarded as null and invalid.
The notification of termination, on the other hand, must be in writing in order for the termination to be legitimate. The notification and termination will be null and void if this is not the case.