One of the most important disagreements between the parties to the employment contract (employee and employer) is ensuring the sustainability of the employment contract in practice.
In order for the employment contract to be terminated by the employee or employer without a justified reason (termination to be effective immediately), the terminating party must notify the other party before the period determined according to the employee’s seniority at the workplace or pay the wage for this period in advance to the other party as a “notice pay”.
In the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, this regulation is being defined as “the notice period” and the “notice pay” (or “notice compensation”).
The Turkish Labour Law has indicated the periods until the contract ends according to the periods the employee has worked. These periods have been determined in an increasing manner according to the employee’s seniority. Accordingly, as stated in the Article 17 of the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, the situation must be notified to the other party before the termination of indefinite-term employment contracts. Upon this notification, the termination would be effective as the notice period has passed.
The following notice periods are being defined in the law:
- For an employee whose job has lasted less than six months, two weeks starting from the date of notification to the other party.
- For an employee whose job has lasted from six months to one and a half years, four weeks starting from the date of notification to the other party.
- For an employee whose job has lasted from one and a half years to three years, six weeks starting from the date of notification to the other party.
- For an employee whose job has lasted more than three years, eight weeks starting from the date of notification to the other party.
These specified periods in the law are minimum and may be increased by employment contracts and collective labour contracts to be made between the parties. If the periods determined between the parties are below the periods stipulated in the law, the minimum periods defined in the law shall be applied instead of these periods.
As to note, the employment contract may be terminated at any time without waiting for the notification period to elapse by the agreement of the parties.
Income tax and stamp duty will be deducted from the notice compensation. However, social security premiums are not deducted from the notice compensation.
There is no upper limit application for the notice compensation, unlike the severance compensation. Since the calculation is made based on the employee’s gross wage, in some cases (especially for high-wage employees), the notice compensation to be paid to the employee may be calculated more than the severance pay.
