The Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, which is the fundamental law of Turkish Labor Law, has determined the working conditions of workers in detail. Accordingly, the periods that will be considered as “night work” are also defined in the Article 69 of the Law No. 4857. Additional restrictions and special regulations have been introduced for employees who will work at night shifts.
Accordingly, in working life, “the night” is accepted as the period that starts at 20:00 at the latest and ends at 06:00 at the earliest and in any case lasts at most eleven hours.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has the authority to issue regulations to determine the application methods of this period by moving the start of “night” for working life back or adjusting summer and winter hours or specifying the start and end times of the day period, depending on the nature and necessity of some jobs or the characteristics of some regions of the country.
Likewise, it is legally possible for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to enact regulations to impose a procedure for paying extra wages at any rate for some night work or to prohibit workers from working at night in workplaces where there is no economic necessity for them to be operated at night.
According to the law, workers’ night work cannot exceed seven and a half hours. This is a strict regulation and it is forbidden to work more than this hour limitation.
However, in jobs carried out within the scope of tourism, private security services, health services and oil research, exploration and drilling activities under the Turkish Petroleum Law No. 6491, night work can be made to exceed seven and a half hours. Even in this case, the written approval of the worker is required.
According to the law, in jobs operated at night and during the day and where shifts are used, the workers who work at night for one work week are put into order by working during the day in the following work week. The principle of two-week shifts can also be applied in night and day shifts.
A worker whose shift will be changed cannot be employed in another shift without having at least eleven hours of uninterrupted rest.
In sum, the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857 has determined the working conditions of workers in detail. Accordingly, the periods that will be accepted as “night work” are also defined in the law. In working life, “night” is considered to be the period that starts at 20:00 at the latest and ends at 06:00 at the earliest, and in any case lasts a maximum of eleven hours. Additional restrictions and regulations have been introduced for employees who will work at night shifts. Except for speacial sectors defined in the law, the night work of workers cannot exceed seven and a half hours.
