According to the Turkish Labor Code No. 4857, employers are required to keep a personnel file for each employee they employ. At this point, there are hesitations about whether personnel files should be kept on paper as hard copy with wet signatures or electronically.
Turkish Labour Law generally places the burden of proof in employee-employer disputes on the shoulders of employers. From this perspective, the documents in the personnel file must be kept with either electronic signature or wet signature for proof. If the workplace is prefering to keep the employee files as electronically, the signature of the employees must be taken accordingly by electronic mediums.
Some companies have switched to electronic storage systems as a result of digital transformation. However, the ability of personnel files stored electronically to be proof documents is an issue that frequently creates problems in practice.
The Supreme Court of Turkey accepts that in practice, documents not signed with a wet signature or electronic/mobile signature cannot be conclusive evidence, but they can be a presumption regarding proof.
If personal files are kept electronically in workplaces, these documents must be signed with the employees’ electronic signature or mobile signature. If this cannot be achieved, at least the employees must give “approval” to the documents through systems that they can access with their special usernames and passwords.
