The Court of Cassation (or the Supreme Court of Appeals) constitutes the highest judicial authority of the Turkish judicial system in terms of civil jurisdiction. As an institution that has division of labor within itself, the Supreme Court of Appeals assigned the 9th Civil Chamber the task of hearing and deciding on cases related to “labour and social security”.
In a precedent decision of the 9th Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals, which is being published in the Turkish Official Gazette dated 17th of August, 2022 and numbered Application No. 2022/4732 and Decision No. 2022/8689, an important case law regarding the judicial settlement of employee-employer disputes is being developed. According to the final decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals, it has been decided that the employee who have received some of his rights with a partial lawsuit can apply to an additional judicial remedy for the “incomplete severance pay rights”.
In the concrete case, it is stated that the total amount of the severance pay of the employee who filed a partial lawsuit and claimed the receivable, which is the severance pay, was determined by the judge, but a part of the severance pay was not paid. In other words, the receivables of the worker in the judicial process have been proved legally, but all the right are not being duly paid and a proportion has remained.
In the relevant decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals, it has been stated that the employee who brought a partial lawsuit has the right to choose whether to make corrections during the case hearing or to file an additional lawsuit for the collection of the entire determined labour receivable, or to be satisfied with the determined provision without resorting to any other legal means.
In the decision, it is being clearly stated that the important thing in the concrete case was the determination of the entire receivable in the first partial lawsuit. As such, it has been determined that the employee can apply to the court again for the remaining balance part of the amount of receivable which is clearly determined in his first lawsuit, yet, which cannot be paid to the employee duly. According to the case-law, the refusal of the employee’s judicial application for such a second lawsuit on the grounds that “there is a final judgment on the relevant matter” was not found to be in accordance with the law.
With the latest case-law of the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals, the employees are given an right to choose whether to make corrections during the case hearing or to file an additional lawsuit for the collection of the entire determined labour receivable. In this regard, the employees’ hand is being strengthen in terms of defending his/her case before the Turkish labour and social security courts.
