The Turkish Labour Code No. 4857 requires the employee’s approval to be obtained by the employer in order to work overtime or work for extra hours in workplaces. An employer who wants to make his/her employee to work overtime in a workplace must obtain written approval from the employee prior the work.
Making overtime work subjected to a condition of consent is intended to protect the employee and to prevent working hours from being arbitrarily and unilaterally determined and becoming uncertain.
Employees Who Are Prohibited from Working Overtime
On the other hand, The Turkish Labour Law prohibits overtime for certain groups of employees. Accordingly, the following employee groups are prohibited from working overtime:
- Employees under 18 years of age,
- Even if they have agreed to work overtime before or after with their employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, employees whose health is not suitable are documented by the report of the workplace physician or SSI physician, or any physician in places where these are not available,
- Pregnant, recently given birth and breastfeeding employees specified in the Regulation stipulated in the Article 88 of the Labour Code,
- Employees employed under part-time employment contracts.
Jobs Where Overtime is Prohibited
Likewise, overtime is prohibited in some jobs specified in the Labour Code. Accordingly, employees in the following jobs are prohibited from working overtime:
- In accordance with the last paragraph of the Article 63 of the Labour Code, employees who work in jobs that require only 7.5 hours or less per day in terms of health rules,
- According to the definition in the first paragraph of the Article 69 of the Labour Code No. 4857, those who work in jobs carried out during the day period which is considered as night,
- Works carried out underground and under water, such as mines, cable laying, sewerage and tunnel construction.
Employees who belong to these groups of employees or who work in the jobs listed above are prohibited from being made to work overtime, even if they have they have given written consent to the employer.
If it is determined that the employer has made the employee work overtime without obtaining written consent from the employee, an administrative fine of 2,666 Turkish Liras will be imposed to the employer for each employee in this situation for the year 2024, in accordance with paragraph (c) of the Article 102 of the Labour Code No. 4857. The penalty amount in question is increased every year at the rate of revaluation.
