Employment Law: Questions and Answers

Immediate termination for just cause and termination for a valid reason have different conditions and different consequences, such as severance pay (kıdem tazminatı), notice pay (ihbar tazminatı) and reinstatement.

Articles 24 and 25 of the Labor Law No. 4857 regulate the right of employees and employers to terminate immediately for just cause; Articles 18 and 19 regulate the basic conditions for termination for a valid reason within the scope of job security. The date of the event cited as the reason for termination, the moment it became known, the content of the notice of termination, the obligation to obtain the employee’s defense statement and the regime of proof must be examined. Not every breach of conduct reaches the weight of just cause. If the conditions of job security are met, the possibility of reinstatement may be considered; the consequences regarding severance pay and notice pay also differ depending on the reason for termination. Special protection provisions and the employee’s status must also be checked separately.

Employee receivables are calculated by assessing together the actual wage, length of service, bank payments, payrolls, attendance records, leave records and workplace records.

Wages, overtime, annual leave pay, national holidays and public holidays, severance pay and notice pay have different bases of origin and calculation. The content of the signed wage payroll, the employee’s reservation of rights, the evidence of the actual wage and bank payments must be compared one by one. In a claim for overtime, whether records exist and the scope of witness statements are important. For each receivable item, the starting date, the statute of limitations, default and the interest to be applied must be determined separately. Changes in the employee’s duties at the workplace and differences in the work arrangement over time may be separated into distinct periods in the calculation.

For reinstatement, as a rule, the mediator must be applied to within one month from the notification of the notice of termination; if no agreement is reached, the labor court must be applied to within two weeks from the final minutes.

Article 20 of the Labor Law No. 4857 and the mediation-as-a-condition-precedent-to-litigation rules under Article 3 of Law No. 7036 apply together. To determine whether the scope of job security is reached, the indefinite-term contract, the number of employees, length of service and the status of employer’s representative must be assessed. The one-month period is tied to the notification of the notice of termination, while the two-week period for filing the action is tied to the final minutes of mediation. An application to the mediator should not be confused with an ordinary objection made to the employer. The periods for applying and for starting work after a reinstatement ruling may also have preclusive consequences, so they must be followed at the stage of the ruling.

The genuineness of the intent to resign and its attribution to the employee must be assessed on the basis of evidence.

The signed resignation text, claims of pressure, the exit code, witnesses and work records are compared. Contradictions in the date or content of the document may affect the reason for the end of the employment contract.

No; workplace records, entry and exit data and witness statements may be assessed together.

The probative value of a signed payroll, electronic card records, shift schedules and correspondence may differ. In the calculation, rest breaks, leave days and payments made in return for overtime are taken into account.

Records showing the continuity of systematic conduct and its effect on working conditions are important.

Correspondence, changes of duties, minutes, health applications and events personally observed by witnesses should be assessed chronologically. Not every management criticism or isolated argument is automatically regarded as mobbing.