The primary law of the Turkish Labour Legislation, the Labour Code No. 4857, brings positive discriminatory provisions for the disabled in Türkiye.
Accordingly, private sector employers are required to employ three percent disabled employees in private sector workplaces where they employ fifty or more employees. In addition, the public workplaces are required to employ four percent disabled employees and two percent ex-convicts. Disabled people should be employed in jobs suitable for their occupation, physical and mental conditions. The disabled cannot be discriminated while being employed in terms of wages and other working conditions.
It is a common question how to find and employ these disabled employees for employers as to be fitting the legal obligation. For fulfilling the legal obligation of employing 3% disabled, employers are obliged to provide the workers they are obliged to employ through the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR).
Within this scope, the qualifications of the workers to be employed, the jobs they can be employed in, their orientation to the profession with the special work they will be subject to in addition to the general provisions in the workplaces, and how they will be employed by the employer in terms of profession are being regulated by the regulation issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
If the employer finds a disabled employee to employ without getting help of the job-finding services of the Turkish Employment Agency, as to fulfill the legal obligation, the employer must register the unemployed to the Agency first and then employ.
Disabled workers cannot be employed in underground and underwater works, and in accordance with the above provisions, those working in underground and underwater works are not taken into account in determining the number of workers in the workplaces.
If workers who were forced to leave a workplace due to disability and whose disability was later eliminated want to be reemployed in their old workplace, the employer must immediately employ them in their old jobs or similar jobs if there is a vacancy, or if there is no vacancy, they must be employed in the first vacant job. The new employment must be under the current conditions, in preference to other applicants.
If the employer does not fulfill its obligation to conclude an employment contract despite the conditions being met, the employer must pay compensation in the amount of six months’ wages to the former worker who requested to be employed.
In sum, private sector employers are required to employ three percent disabled employees in private sector workplaces where they employ fifty or more employees. For fulfilling the legal obligation of employing three percent disabled, employers are obliged to provide the workers to employ through the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR)’s job-finding services.
