In terms of the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857, which is the primary legislation of the Turkish Labour Law, the statute of limitations begins on the date of birth of the right. For example, the statute of limitations for overtime wages is also applied while the employment contract continues, but since the right to annual leave turns into wages at the time of termination, the statute of limitations begins from the date of termination. Likewise, since the severance pay is born with the termination of the employment contract, the statute of limitations for the severance pay begins after the employment contract is terminated.
Accordingly, the Article 32 of the Turkish Labour Code No. 4857 states that “The statute of limitations for wage receivables is five years.“In addition, the Additional Article 3 of the same law states the following provisions: “The statute of limitations for the annual leave fee and the compensation specified below is five years, regardless of the law, provided that it arises from the employment contract:
- Severance pay.
- Compensation arising from the termination of the employment contract without complying with the notification requirement.
- Compensation for bad faith.
- Compensation arising from the termination of the employment contract without complying with the principle of equal treatment.”
According to the Turkish Social Security Law, there is a 10-year statute of limitations for premium debts and for administrative fines.
In this regard, the Article 102 of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Code No. 5510 states that “Administrative fines are subject to a ten-year statute of limitations. The statute of limitations begins from the date the act was committed.” In addition, the Article 93 of the same law states the following provisions: “The Institution’s premiums and other receivables are subject to a statute of limitations of ten years, starting from the beginning of the calendar year following the expiration of the payment period. If the Institution’s premiums and other receivables arose as a result of a court decision, from the date of the finalization of the court decision; if they arose from the findings made by the Institution’s officers responsible for auditing and control, from the date of the report; if they arose from the investigations, audits and examinations to be conducted by the auditing staff of public administrations in accordance with their own legislation, from the date on which the results of such investigations, audits and examinations are conveyed to the Institution; or if they arose from information and documents received from banks, revolving funds, public administrations and institutions and organizations established by law, from the date on which the information and documents are conveyed to the Institution, the statute of limitations is applied as ten years. The late payment penalty and late payment interest to be calculated in accordance with the Article 89 for these receivables shall be applied as of the day following the last day of the payment period specified in the Article 88.”
In terms of the Turkish Occupational Health and Safety Law, a statute of limitations is defined in line with the employers obligation to keep records related to occupational health and safety (OHS). Accordingly the statue of limitations to keep the OHS records is 15 years as of the employee’s dismissal date.
Accordingly, the Article 7 of the Occupational Health and Safety Services Regulation states that “Without prejudice to the periods determined in the relevant legislation, the employer keeps all kinds of records related to occupational health and safety activities carried out in the workplace, and keeps the personal health files of the employees for at least 15 years from the date of leaving the job.
If the employee leaves the workplace and starts working in another workplace, the new employer requests the employee’s personal health file in writing, the previous employer approves a copy of the file and sends it within one month.”
