Employment Lawyer

Being dismissed, unpaid wages or a workplace accident directly affect a person’s livelihood; for an employer, a single badly handled termination can create unexpected compensation liabilities. As an employment lawyer in Mersin, I provide legal support to both employees and employers. Acting for employees, I work on claims for wages and overtime, severance pay (kıdem tazminatı) and notice pay (ihbar tazminatı), reinstatement (işe iade), workplace bullying (mobbing) and workplace accident disputes; on the employer side, I work on drafting employment contracts and on conducting disciplinary and termination procedures lawfully. In employment disputes, mandatory mediation (zorunlu arabuluculuk), strict time limits that extinguish the right (hak düşürücü süre) and the content of the termination notice determine the outcome; that is why it is important to take the first step correctly.

In Which Matters Does an Employment Lawyer Provide Support?

• Claims for unpaid wages, overtime, weekly rest day pay, public holiday pay and annual leave pay
• Severance pay and notice pay claims
• Reinstatement lawsuits against terminations that are not based on a valid reason
• Termination of the employment contract by the employee for just cause
• Termination and compensation claims due to psychological harassment (mobbing) at work
• Claims for material and non-material damages arising from workplace accidents and occupational diseases
• Representing employees or employers in mandatory mediation meetings
• Advice for employers on employment contracts, disciplinary procedures and terminations

Employee Receivables: Wages, Overtime and Annual Leave

An employee whose wage is not paid within twenty days of the payment date, without a compelling reason, may refuse to work; where the conditions are met, they may also terminate the employment contract for just cause. Work exceeding forty-five hours per week is overtime, and each hour of overtime is paid at the normal hourly wage plus fifty per cent. Work on the weekly rest day and on national and public holidays is also paid separately.

Annual paid leave cannot be less than fourteen days for those with one to five years of service, twenty days for those with more than five but less than fifteen years of service, and twenty-six days for those with fifteen years of service or more. Pay for unused leave is paid when the employment contract ends.

Proof is decisive in these cases. Payslips, bank records, timesheets and entry-exit records, correspondence and witness statements are assessed together. In files where the wage is shown lower on the payslip than it actually was, establishing the real wage affects the calculation of all claims.

Severance Pay and Notice Pay

For severance pay, the employee must have worked for the same employer for at least one year and the contract must have ended for one of the reasons listed in the law. The main reasons are: termination by the employer for a reason other than conduct contrary to morality and good faith, termination by the employee for just cause, military service, completion of the insurance period and number of premium days required for an old-age pension, a female employee leaving within one year of the date of her marriage, and the death of the employee. The compensation is calculated on the basis of thirty days’ gross wage including benefits (giydirilmiş brüt ücret) for each full year of service and is limited by the statutory ceiling. For details, please see the severance pay page.

The party wishing to terminate an employment contract of indefinite duration must comply with the notice periods: two weeks for service of less than six months, four weeks for service of six months to one and a half years, six weeks for one and a half to three years, and eight weeks for more than three years. The party that does not comply with the notice period pays compensation equal to the wages for that period; the employer can also make this claim against an employee who leaves without giving notice. For details, please see the notice pay page.

To see an approximate amount, you can use the severance and notice pay calculator; the exact calculation is made once all elements of the wage have been established with documents.

The Difference Between Termination for Just Cause and Termination for a Valid Reason

Termination for just cause (haklı fesih) is the immediate ending of the contract, without waiting for the notice period, in situations that make it unbearable to continue the employment relationship. The employee may terminate for just cause in cases such as non-payment of wages, failure to apply the agreed working conditions, insults or harassment; the employer may do so in cases of conduct contrary to morality and good faith, such as absenteeism, persistent refusal to perform duties or abuse of trust. As a rule, the right to terminate on these grounds can no longer be exercised once six working days have passed from the day the event became known and, in any case, once one year has passed since the event.

Termination for a valid reason (geçerli fesih), on the other hand, is required for employees covered by job security. A termination with notice by the employer must be based on a valid reason arising from the employee’s capability or conduct, or from the requirements of the business, the workplace or the work. The termination notice must be in writing and must state the reason clearly and precisely; before terminating for reasons relating to the employee’s conduct or performance, the employee’s defence must be obtained. Failure to follow these rules can make the termination invalid even if the reason is real.

Reinstatement Lawsuit

For job security to apply, thirty or more employees must work at the workplace, and the employee must have at least six months’ seniority, work under a contract of indefinite duration and not be in the position of an employer’s representative. An application must be made to a mediator within one month of service of the termination notice and, if no agreement is reached, a lawsuit must be filed in the labour court within two weeks of the date on which the final mediation report was drawn up. These time limits extinguish the right if missed.

If the court decides that the termination is invalid, the employee must apply to the employer to return to work within ten working days of the decision becoming final. If the employer does not take the employee back within one month, it pays job security compensation equal to four to eight months’ wages. In addition, the employee is paid up to four months’ wages and other entitlements for the period during which they were not employed. For details, please see the reinstatement lawsuit page.

Workplace Bullying (Mobbing)

Mobbing is psychological harassment applied systematically and continuously in order to intimidate or exclude an employee or to force them to leave. Constant humiliation, removal of authority, assigning meaningless tasks and isolation are common examples. The Turkish Code of Obligations (TBK) requires the employer to protect employees against psychological and sexual harassment. An employee subjected to mobbing can terminate the contract for just cause and claim severance pay and, where the conditions are met, non-material damages (manevi tazminat). To prove that the conduct was continuous, correspondence, medical reports and witnesses should be gathered in advance. For details, please see the workplace bullying page.

Workplace Accidents and Occupational Diseases

Under occupational health and safety legislation, the employer must assess risks, take the necessary measures and train its employees; it must also report a workplace accident to the Social Security Institution (SGK) within three working days after the accident. The injured employee can claim medical expenses, loss of earnings and non-material damages; if the employee loses their life, their relatives can claim compensation for loss of financial support (destekten yoksun kalma tazminatı) and non-material damages. These lawsuits are not subject to mandatory mediation. For details, please see the workplace accidents page.

Legal Support for Employers

Many employment disputes are decided by steps taken long before the termination. Drafting employment contracts clearly, with provisions on the job description, pay structure, consent to overtime, confidentiality and non-competition, putting the disciplinary procedure in writing, and conducting the warning, defence and incident report (tutanak) procedures in an orderly way all make proof easier. A non-competition clause must be in writing and limited in terms of place, time and type of work; except in special circumstances, its duration cannot exceed two years.

At the termination stage, the reason must be correctly identified, the notice must be given in writing with reasons, and the strict time limits must be observed. A release (ibraname), in turn, is valid when it is drawn up in writing at least one month after the end of the contract, specifying the type and amount of the claim, and when the payment is made in full through a bank. For details, please see the legal advice for employers page.

Mediation and Limitation Periods

For employee or employer claims for receivables and compensation based on the law or on an individual or collective employment agreement, and for reinstatement claims, applying to a mediator before filing a lawsuit is a precondition for the lawsuit (dava şartı); a lawsuit filed without this application is dismissed on procedural grounds. The mediator concludes the meetings within three weeks; where necessary, this period can be extended by up to one week. The parties can no longer file a lawsuit on the matters covered by the agreement document; the text should therefore be reviewed carefully before it is signed.

Severance pay, notice pay, bad-faith compensation (kötüniyet tazminatı) and compensation for unequal treatment, as well as annual leave pay, are subject to a five-year limitation period (zamanaşımı). For wages, overtime, weekly rest day and public holiday pay, the period is also five years and runs separately for each claim. Applying to a mediator suspends the limitation period until the process ends.

Employment Cases in Mersin

Employment cases are heard by the labour courts (iş mahkemesi); where there is no labour court, the civil court of first instance (asliye hukuk mahkemesi) hears them acting as a labour court. The lawsuit can be filed in the court of the defendant’s place of residence or of the place where the work is performed. For workplaces in the central districts, the lawsuit is filed in the labour courts in Mersin; for work performed in districts such as Tarsus, Erdemli, Silifke, Mut and Anamur, the courthouse of that district may also have jurisdiction. The mediation application is made to the mediation office at the other party’s place of residence or at the place where the work is performed or, where there is no such office, to the registry of the civil court of peace (sulh hukuk mahkemesi).

In Mersin, working relationships differ by sector: logistics and warehousing around the Port of Mersin and the Free Zone, production facilities in the organised industrial zones, agricultural and greenhouse businesses, and businesses in tourism and holiday areas are the main ones. Shift and night work, overtime in busy periods, social security registration on a lower wage than the one actually paid, subcontractor relationships and seasonal contracts are common sources of disputes. For employees living in another city, or employers whose headquarters are in another province, the process can be conducted from here with a power of attorney (vekâletname). To get an assessment, you can contact me through the contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions