The Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, which is the fundamental law of Turkish Labour Law, defines a period called “the notice period” for the termination of employment contracts. Both the employee and the employer are obliged to comply with the rules regarding the notice period and notify the other party within a certain period of time before terminating the employment contract.
The notice period varies according to the employee’s seniority at the workplace. Accordingly, the minimum notice periods according to the law are as follows:
- 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.
The will to terminate the employment contracts of employees working with an indefinite-term employment contract shall become effective at the end of the above-mentioned notice periods.
These periods defined in the law are minimum and can be increased by contracts.
The party that does not comply with the notification requirement must pay compensation in the amount of the wage related to the notification period.
Thanks to the notice rule applied in Turkish Labor Law, while the employer will search for a new employee during the notice period, the employee will have the opportunity to search for a new job during the notice period.
In this regard, “the job search permit” granted to the employee is a specially regulated provision in the Labour Code No. 4857. Accordingly, during the notice periods, the employer is obliged to grant the employee the job search permit required for finding a new job, within working hours and without deducting wages.
The duration of the job search permit cannot be less than two hours per day and the employee may combine the job search permit hours and use them collectively if he/she wishes. The “two hours per day” defined in the law is the minimum period and the job search permit period may be increased by an individual employment contract or collective labor agreement.
As a special regulation, an employee who wants to use the job search permit in bulk must do so on the days before the day they will leave work and must notify the employer of this situation.
According to the law, if the employer does not give a new job search permit or gives it incompletely, the wage for that period is paid to the employee. If the employer employs the employee during the job search permit, in addition to the wage the employee would receive without any obligation for work, the employer must pay the wage for the period they worked with a one-hundred percent increase.
