In line with the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, annual paid leave cannot be divided by the employer. The main reason for this prohibition on division is to prevent the employee’s annual leave right from being divided and rendered meaningless.
Annual leave must be granted continuously by the employer within the periods determined according to the employee’s seniority.
However, annual leave periods can be used in parts, one part of which cannot be less than ten days, upon the agreement of the parties. The rule of having a piece on the front day is to ensure that the worker does not work for ten uninterrupted days and has a rest.
Other paid and unpaid leaves or rest and sick leaves given by the employer during the year cannot be offset against annual leave.
When calculating annual paid leave days, national holidays, week holidays and general holidays that coincide with the leave period are not counted as leave period. Although it varies depending on the practice in the workplace and the conditions in the contract, as a rule, Saturday cannot be added to the annual leave period since it is considered a working day. During annual leave, a week break is not counted as part of the annual leave period, but since Saturday is considered a working day, it cannot be added to the annual leave period.
Situations such as the employer not allowing the employee to use his annual leave right in accordance with the rules set out in the Labour Code No. 4857 or forcing him to use part of it for less than 10 days constitute a justified reason for termination for the employee.
Documentation of annual leave
The employer must keep a leave record document showing the annual paid leaves of the employees working in the workplace.
The main employer is obliged to check whether the annual paid leave periods to which the workers employed by the sub-employer are entitled are used and to ensure that they are used within the relevant year, and the sub-employer is obliged to provide the main employer with a copy of the leave record document that it is obliged to keep in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Labor Code No. 4857.
