According to the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, which is the main law of the Turkish Labour Law, the worker has the right to terminate the employment contract with justified cause due to violation of the rules of ethics and goodwill by the employer.
The following situations are considered as employer’s violation of the rules of ethics and goodwill:
- If the employer misleads the worker by showing false qualifications or conditions, or by giving false information or saying wrong words about one of the essential points of the contract, at the time of establishment of the employment contract.
- If the employer speaks, acts or harasses the employee sexually, in a way that harms it harms the honor and reputation of the employee or one of his family members.
- If the employer taunts or intimidates the worker or one of his family members, or encourages, incites, or drives the worker or one of his family members to act against the law.
- If the employer commits a crime that requires imprisonment against the worker or one of his family members, or commits a false accusation against the worker or one of his family members.
- If the worker is sexually harassed in the workplace by another worker or a third party, yet the necessary precautions are not taken by the employer despite being informing of this situation.
- If the employee’s wage is not calculated or paid in accordance with the provisions of the law or the terms of the contract by the employer (In practice 20 or more day delays are being considered within this scope).
- In cases where it is decided to pay the wage per piece or on the amount of work, and the employer gives the worker less work than he/she can do, and if the wage difference is paid on a time basis the worker’s deficient wage is not met.
- If the working conditions defined by the employment contract, by the law or by the workplace procedures are not applied to the employee.
In the cases enlisted above, the employee legally has the right to terminate employment contract with a justified cause in accordance with the Article 24 of the Turkish Labour Code. In terminations with a justified cause, the termination may become effective immediately and no notice period is required to be given to the other party. In addition, it will not be possible to demand notice compensation from the employee by the employer.
As another important point, justified termination is a type of termination that gives rise to the right to unemployment benefits for the employee. According to the Article 24 of the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, after the employment contract terminated for justified reasons, the right to severance pay is acquired, and the right to unemployment benefit arises after this termination.
In the event that the employee is based on the rightful termination cases, he/she may file the lawsuits in the relevant labour court against the employer. While some of the labour court lawsuits depend on the justification of the termination reason, some of them are not dependent on the grounds for termination.
