One of the rights granted to workers by the Turkish Labor Code No. 4857 is the right to annual paid leave.
The annual leave period is calculated according to the seniority of the employee in the workplace. If the worker has service from one year to five years (including five years), the annual leave period cannot be less than 14 days. The annual paid leave cannot be less than 20 days if the employee has more than five years of seniority up to fifteen years (excluding fifteen years) and cannot be less than 26 days if the employee has at least fifteen years of service in the workplace.
An employee who has at least one year of seniority at the workplace has the right to annual paid leave. In case of working for at least one year, including the trial period, starting from the date of commence of employment, annual paid leave is entitled.
It has to be underlined that, if the employee have worked in different workplaces of the same employer consecutively or on different dates, it is necessary to add up the service periods spent in these workplaces when calculating the one-year period required for entitlement to annual leave.
For example, if the worker have worked for 4 months at workplace 1 belonging to employer A and then for 8 months at workplace 2 owned by the same employer, he/she will be entitled to annual paid leave rights, as the total number of seniority is exceeding one year limit.
There is a special regulation for certain age groups regarding annual leave periods. The annual leave period to be given to workers aged 18 and younger and workers aged 50 and over must be at least 20 days. As an example, a 16-year-old worker will use his annual leave not as 14 days but over 20 days for each year until he turns 18, even if his service period is less than five years.
According to the rules defined by the regulations of the Labour Code, it can be used by dividing the annual leave, in case of agreement with the employer on this matter, annual leave can be used by dividing it without limit. However, in such a case, a single part of the permits must not be less than 10 days.
The employer has to pay in advance the wages for the annual leave period to the worker who will go on annual leave.
In case of leaving the workplace or end of employment contract, unused annual leave rights do not being lost. In the event that the service contract is terminated for any reason, the wages for the unused annual leave periods must be paid to the worker over the wages on the date of the termination of the service contract.
