Under Turkish Law, Working Hours and Overtime Work is mainly defined and explained by the respective articles of following Turkish Legislation.
- Turkish Labor Law (Law no. 4857)[1]
- The Working Time Regulation in relation to the Labor Law[2] (Working Time Regulation)
- Regulation on overtime and extra hours pursuant to the Labor Law[3] (Overtime Regulation)
Under article 3 of the Working Time Regulation “Working Hour” is defined as the period of time that the employee spends at the workplace.
As per the same article of the Working Hours Regulation and in line with Turkish Labor Law, variety of periods utilized by the employees are defined as working hours[4] Accordingly, for the employees working underground or underwater such as in mines, stone quarries, the periods spent in the descending actual workplace; when employee sent to another place by employer outside of workplace, the traveling time; time allowed during nursing leave while feeding child; time spent by being standby though not performing any work while remaining available at the disposal of the employer or despite travelling time that an employee to travels to and from work is generally not counted as part of their working hours, time spent to travelling to worksite together with group of employees as a requirement of the activity in the works like construction, maintenance, repair and alteration of railways, roads and bridges. Beside Article 66, time spend on trainings considered compulsory for employees under other Turkish legislation such as health and safety trainings in accordance with Law on 6333 on Occupational Health and Safety, also deemed as working time.[5]
However, rest periods are not considered as Working Hours. As per Art. 68 of Turkish Labor Law, Rest Periods are determined as below,
[fusion_table fusion_table_type=”1″ fusion_table_rows=”” fusion_table_columns=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]| Up to Four Working Hours | 15 Minutes |
|---|---|
| Between Four and Seven and Half Hours | 30 Minutes |
| More than Seven and Half Hours | One Hour |
These periods are minimum and applied uninterruptedly.
Under Turkish Labor Law, regular working hours is 45 hours in a week (Art. 41/1 & Art. 63, Turkish Labor Law) Regular working hours is equally divided to working days unless otherwise agreed. In the case that parties of employment contract agreed to disarrange the weekly working hours, daily limit of working hours cannot exceed 11 hours.
Overtime
Overtime is accumulated if the regular working hours are exceeded. Overtime must be remunerated with an additional bonus of 50% in money or 1 hour and 30 minutes time balance at the written request of the employee. As per article 5 of the Overtime Regulation total amount of overtime cannot exceed two hundred and seventy hours in one year.
As pert article 8 of Overtime Regulation, Overtime is prohibited for the following workers:
- a) workers under 18 years of age,
- b) workers holding a medical certificate issued by the works doctor or a doctor of the Office of President of the Social Insurances Institution, or, in places where there are no such doctors, by any medical practitioner confirming that their health does not allow it, even if they have previously agreed or subsequently agree to work overtime in an employment contract or collective labor agreement,
- c) workers who are pregnant, have just given birth or are breastfeeding, as indicated in the Regulations for which provision is made in Section 88 of the Tur,
- d) workers on part time employment contracts. Nor shall workers on part time contracts be required to work extra hours.
Excessive work
Excessive work is defined under the Article 41/3 of Turkish Law where weekly working hours is designated below the regular working hours and over the time specified in the employment contract. Excessive Work must be remunerated with an additional bonus of 25% in money or 1 hour and 15 minutes time balance at the written request of the employee.
Equalization or Balancing
Equalization application is executed if the parties of employment contract disarrange the weekly working hours independently. As per article 63(2) of Turkish Labor Law, the execution of equalization is possible only for 2 months period or it is could be extended to 4 months period with collective labor agreements. On the other hand, the average working hours of equalization period cannot exceed 45 hours weekly and 11 hours daily.
Work on Public Holidays and Weekends – Articles 46 & 47
Employees are entitled to have minimum uninterrupted 24 hours of paid weekly rest day within seven days period. Work on weekends should be paid as an additional full one-day wage for each day worked plus 50% overtime wage. Unless otherwise agreed in the employment contract or collective agreements, employee consent is required to work during national and public holidays. Work on national and public holidays should be paid as an additional full one-day wage for each day worked.
[1]Labor Law no 4857 (OG. 10.06.2003/25134) available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4c446f4c2.html [accessed 14 May 2021]
[2] OG. 06.04.2004: 25425
[3] OG. 06.04.2004: 25425
[4] Law no 4857, Art. 66
[5] Law on 6333 on Occupational Health and Safety (OG. 30.06.2012/28339)
