The Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, which is the primary law of the Turkish Labour Legislation, has brought several principles and provisions regarding “the principle of equal treatment” and “the rule of prohibition of discrimination” in labour relationship. “The equal treatment principle” and “the rule of prohibition of discrimination” shall be applied to recruitment processes as well, as to start from the first application of prospective employee to the workplace.
In this regard, the question on whether the kinship can be a criterion for recruitment in accordance with the Turkish Labour Law comes to mind.
In this regard, it is possible that the criterion of “being or not being a first-degree relative” of a particular person working in the workplace in terms of job postings and participation in recruitment interviews, and the fact that this criterion will be used as a basis for the recruitment decision, can be evaluated in the context of “prohibition of discrimination” within the scope of the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857.
According to the Article 5 of the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857 titled “Principle of Equal Treatment”, the employer cannot make a distinction based on language, race, colour, gender, disability, political thought, philosophical belief, religion, sect, gender and similar reason in the employment relationship, including the recruitment process. This is called “prohibition of discrimination in employment relation”.
On the other hand, during the evaluation phase of the recruitment process, it is possible to base the decision on whether the person’s characteristics are suitable for the job and whether the person’s career is suitable for recruitment. Even in this case, it is recommended not to use the criterion of “kinship” as a justification for the recruitment decision for any employers.
It should also required to be pointed out that, although the Turkish Court of Cassations has many decisions in the context of “prohibition of discrimination in the workplace”, there is no decision based on “being a first-degree relative or not”. However, it should be considered that in a possible legal dispute, the criterion regarding “whether the applicant is a first-degree relative of someone working in the workplace” may be within the scope of the prohibition of discrimination defined in the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857.
In this regard, the “kinship relations” should not be clearly and distinctly used as an evaluation criterion during recruitment processes.
