Laws , Regulations in Turkey

Dismissal of employees in Turkey

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Foreign entrepreneurs who hired employees for their companies in Turkey must respect the local Labour Law (Law 4857), that came into force in 10 June 2003, when they need to dismiss a part of them. The Turkish legislation related to firing the employees is in accordance with the European legislation.

Every employee must have a contract for a definite or indefinite period of time, with a trial period of 2-4 months. If an employer wants to fire an employee within the trial period, this can be made without any notice or compensation. The employee will receive an amount calculated for the period while he worked and then he is free to search for another job.

When an investor wants to sub-contract a part of his work, he is responsible too for the employees of the sub-contractor. If the employer or the employee needs to terminate a contract concluded for an indefinite period, he must announce his intention to the other party. After the announcement is made, the leaving party is required to maintain the labour relationship for another 2 to 8 weeks. If one of the parties does not respect this obligation, it must pay compensation to the other part.


Termination of contract for indefinite period


An employer who wants to terminate a contract with an employee who has a contract for an indefinite term and who worked more than six months must respect certain regulation, according to the Employment Law in Turkey. If the employer has minimum 30 employees, he is required to justify legally the termination of the contract.

A special attention must be given to procedures related to collective dismissal of employees. A dismissal is collective when certain conditions are fulfilled:

  • at least 10 employees, from the total amount of 20 – 100 employees, are to be fired;
  • at least 10% of the employees from companies where 101-300 employees work are to be dismissed;
  • at least 30 employees in the companies with 301 or more employees are to be fired.

The main legal reasons for collective dismissal are related to economic, technological or structural issues.