The Turkish Constitutional Court, the highest body of the Turkish Judicial System, has an important role in protecting and securing fundamental rights and freedoms in Türkiye.
The right of individual application, which entered into force in 2010, allows individuals to apply to the Turkish Constitutional Court when they believe that their fundamental rights and freedoms have been violated. The Turkish Constitutional Court evaluates the admissibility of individual applications and examines the file according to the admissibility criteria. It determines whether there has been a violation of rights granted by the Turkish Constitution and the E uropean Convention on Human Rights by examining the applications it finds acceptable in detail.
If the Court decides that a violation has occurred, it makes a decision that will eliminate the consequences of the violation. These decisions are binding on all administrative and judicial authorities and generally foresee the re-establishment of the violated right and the change of the relevant legislation or practice. The decisions of the Constitutional Court are published in the Turkish Official Gazette and thus made public, and the relevant institutions and judicial authorities are obliged to implement and comply with these decisions.
The decisions of the Court constitute an important precedent in the legal system and provide guidance for future practices. These processes represent an important mechanism for the protection and strengthening of human rights standards in Turkey.
It is seen that the Turkish Constitutional Court frequently gives rights violation decisions regarding individual applications regarding employment relations and workers’ rights, and these decisions will affect employee-employer relations and determine the results of the cases in Labor Courts.
As a recent example of this, in the Turkish Constitutional Court’s decision numbered 2020/38733 published in the Turkish Official Gazette dated 16.09.2024, a rights violation decision was given in the context of freedom of expression guaranteed in the Constitution regarding the claims that “the employer’s right to trial within a reasonable time and the right to freedom of thought was violated due to the termination of the employment contract due to the words uttered in the e-mail sent by the employee”. The court ruled that TRL 30,000 in non-pecuniary damages should be paid to the applicant.
In the justification of the decision it is being underlined that,” the employee’s words stating “Hello, I am returning the raise rate given to me to human resources in an envelope. Whoever determined this rate should share it among themselves, for your information.” taken as a base for the termination of the employment contract by the employer with “just cause” in the form of “contained a veiled insult that could harm the honor and reputation of the employer’s representatives” is a violation of freedom of expression of the employee.
