Under Turkish Labor Law (Law no. 4857) there is a variety of leaves provided to the employees. Availability of the leaves and their length is determined in the different articles of the Turkish Labor Law as follows.
Annual Leave
In Turkey, all employees are entitled to have a paid annual leave with the condition of completing minimum one year of service (including trial period) in the workplace. The right to annual leave with pay cannot be waived. Turkish Labor Law regulates the conditions, length and the application of annual leave under the articles between 53 and 61.
Length of the annual leave changes in accordance with the length of service of the employee. As per article 53, the length of the employee’s annual leave with pay shall not be less than;
- fourteen days if his length of service is between one and five years, (five included),
- twenty days if it is more than five and less than fifteen years,
- twenty-six days if it is fifteen years and more (fifteen included)
These determined minimum annual leave periods can be extended by the employment contracts. Moreover, for employees below the age of eighteen years old (18) and above the fifteen years old (50), the length of the annual leave cannot be less than twenty (20) days. Due to their nature of work, rules on the annual leave are not applicable to the seasonal works. Calculation of length of services plays crucial importance in the entitlement of the annual leaves. In accordance with article 55 of the Turkish Labor Law, following periods are regarded within the length of services;
- Days on which the employee fails to report to work owing to an accident or illness (however, time which exceeds the period foreseen in subsection I (b) of Article 25 shall not be treated as worked[1])
- Days on which the female employee is not permitted to work before and after her confinement, in accordance with Article 74.
- Days on which the employee is unable to report to work through having been called up for military exercises or for the performance of a statutory obligation, other than compulsory military service, (up to a maximum of 90 days in a year)
- Fifteen days of any period during which the employee has not worked because of the temporary but interrupted suspension of operations for longer than one week owing to force majeure, on condition that he has subsequently resumed work.
- Periods reckoned as having been worked, envisaged in Article 66;
- Weekly rest days and national and public holidays;
- Half-days of leave granted in addition to Sundays to employees working in radiological clinics, in accordance with the regulation issued under Act No. 3153;
- Days on which the employee is unable to report for work because of having to attend meetings of mediation and arbitration boards, acting as an employees’ representative on such boards or before a labor court, serving as an employees’ or union representative on boards, committees or meetings organized under the relevant legislation or attending conventions, conferences or committee meetings of international organizations dealing with labor matters;
- Up to three days’ leave on the occasion of the employee’s marriage and up to two days’ leave on the occasion of his parent’s, spouse’s, sister’s or brother’s or child’s death;
- Other leave granted by the employer;
- Annual leave with pay granted to the employee in pursuance of the application this Act.
As per article 56, in the existence of mutual agreement between employee and employer, annual leave period can be divided into three parts which one of the parts cannot be less than (10) ten days. Other types of paid or unpaid leaves such as sick leave cannot be deducted from annual leave period. National holidays, public holidays and weekly rest days also cannot be included in the annual leave period. Upon the request of the employee, on the condition of providing proof showing he/she will spend annual leave at a place other than where the workplace is located, employer is entitled to grant (4) four days unpaid leave.
Maternity Leave
Maternity and nursing leave is regulated by the article 74 of the Turkish Labor Law. Accordingly, all female employees are entitled to maternity leave from work (8) eight weeks before and (8) eight weeks after the confinement. In the case of multiple pregnancies, additional (2) two weeks added to the entitled (8) eight weeks leave before the confinement. Upon her request, a female employee may continue to work until the (3) three weeks before the delivery with the written consent of medical doctor. In such case the unused period of maternity leave is added to the post confinement period. During the maternity leave, employer is not required to pay monthly salary of the employee. However, after the maternity leave period, female employees receive temporary incapacity allowance from the Social Security Institution. Temporary incapacity allowance is calculated on the basis of two third of gross daily income of the employee for the whole maternity leave period. [2]
One parent of the adopting couple or a parent who is adopting alone is entitled to have 8 weeks maternity leave when adopting a child under three years old, starting from the date of child handed over to them.
Upon the request of the employee, an unpaid maternity leave up to (6) six months might be granted after the expiry of the maternity leave. Unpaid maternity leave is not considered within the employee’s one year service. An unpaid leave for the half of daily working time might be granted upon request of the employee, following the end of maternity, for 60 days period for the first child, for hundred-twenty days period for the second child and for hundred – eighty days period for the third child. In the case of multiple births, these periods prolong thirty more days. This period will be applied as 360 days in case of child was born with disability. One parent of the adopting couple or a parent who is adopting alone is also entitled above mentioned unpaid leaves.
Nursing Leave (Breastfeeding Leave)
Article 74 of the Turkish labor law also regulates the nursing leaves of the female employees. All female employees are allowed daily a total of one and half hour nursing leave from their return to work until their infant newborn child turns (1) one year old. Nursing leave is considered within the daily working time. Employee herself decides when and in how many parts she will use the nursing leave.
Marriage Leave
In the event of marriage, as per article 46 (b) and with reference to additional article 2 of the Turkish labor law, employees are entitled to (3) three days paid leave.
Bereavement Leave
As per article 46 (b) and with reference to additional article 2 of the Turkish labor law, employees are entitled to (3) three days of paid leave in the event of the death of the employee’s mother, father, spouse, brother or sister, and child.
Paternity Leave
As per article 46 (b) and with reference to additional article 2 of the Turkish labor law, employees are entitled to (5) five days of paid leave in the event of employee’s spouse giving birth.
Adoption Leave
As per article 46 (b) and with reference to additional article 2 of the Turkish labor law, employees are entitled to (3) three days of paid leave in the event of adoption of a child.
Child Care Leave for Employees with disabled or chronically ill child.
As per article 46 (b) and with reference to additional article 2 of the Turkish labor law, one of the parent employees of a child who has at least seventy percent disability or chronic disease based on medical report is entitled to ten (10) days (uninterrupted or in portions) of paid leave in a year for attending treatment of disabled or chronically ill child.
Sick leave
In accordance with article 46 (c) of the Turkish labor law, maximum one week of sick leave based on a confirmative medical report shall be considered as days worked.
During the sick leave, employer is not required to pay monthly salary of the employee. In line with article 18 of Law no. 5510 on Social Insurance and General Health Insurance, employees are entitled to receive temporary incapacity allowance for each day of unworked days starting from the third day of temporary incapacity, provided that minimum ninety short term insurance premium is paid within one year before the starting date of the temporary incapacity. Temporary incapacity allowance is calculated based on two third of gross daily income of the employee for the sick leave period. In the case of employee is suffering from temporary incapacity due to work accident or occupational disease, temporary incapacity payment covers all unworked days.
In the case of sick leave that exceeds (6) six weeks beyond the notice periods determined in Labor Law, employment contract may be terminated without notice.
Notice periods are determined under the article 17 of Labor Law. Minimum notice periods are set on the basis of length of employment. Accordingly.
| Less than (6)six weeks | (2)two weeks |
| Between (6)six weeks and (18)eighteen weeks | (4)four weeks |
| Between (18)eighteen weeks and (36) thirty-six weeks | (6)six weeks |
| More than (3( three years | (8)eight weeks |
Employers might have right to terminate employment contracts without notice in the case of sick leave that exceeds six weeks beyond the above notice periods. For instance for an employee who is using sick leave and have worked less than six weeks, employer has the right to terminate employment contract without notice after (8) eight weeks. (2 weeks notice + 6 weeks sick leave)
Leave for seeking a new job
As per article 27, during notice period, all employees are entitled to use no less than two hours times-off within working hours to seek new job. Job seeking hours might be merged and can be used at one time. If the employee works during the job seeking hours, employer should compensate job seeking hours with twice amount of salary in addition to employee’s normal salary.
[1] In accordance with article 25(1)(b) of Turkish Labor Law, employer may terminate a contract, irrespective of considering whether the contract is definite or indefinite terms, for the reasons of health if recovery from injury or illness continues for more than six weeks beyond notice periods defined under Turkish Labor law.
Article reads as follows.
“Art. 25. – The employer may break the contract, whether for a definite or indefinite period, before its expiry or without having to comply with the prescribed notice periods, in the following cases:
I. For reasons of health
b) If the Health Committee has determined that the suffering is incurable and incompatible with the performance of the employee’s duties. In cases of illness or accident which are not attributable to the employee’s fault and which are due to reasons outside those set forth in (a) above and in cases of pregnancy or confinement, the employer is entitled to terminate the contract if recovery from the illness or injury continues for more than six weeks beyond the notice periods set forth in article 17. In cases of pregnancy or confinement, the period mentioned above shall begin at the end of the period stipulated in Article 74. No wages are to be paid for the period during which the employee fails to report to work due to the suspension of his (her) contract.”
Labor Law no 4857 (OG. 10.06.2003/25134) available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4c446f4c2.html [accessed 14 May 2021]
[2] Law no. 5510 on Social Insurance and General Health Insurance (OG. 16.06.2006/26200) Art. 18
