Termination of employment contract in Turkey without notice in general
Article 25 of the Labour Law No. 4857 regulates the right of termination of employment contract in Turkey without notice. In the terminations to be made according to the provision of the Article, contrary to Article 17, it will not make any difference whether the contract is for a definite or indefinite term, and the expiry or non-expiry of the term will not be taken into consideration when this article is applied. Again, according to the provision of the article, in Turkey no notice is required to be given to the employee for the termination of the employment contract to be made according to this article.
If the provisions of the first subparagraph regulating health reasons, the third subparagraph regulating compelling reasons and the fourth subparagraph regulating detention or arrest are to be used in the terminations to be made according to the provision of the article, the employee will not be paid notice pay, and if other conditions are met, severance pay will be paid. If the action will be taken according to the provisions of the second subparagraph regulating the cases of non-compliance with the rules of morality and goodwill, there is no need to pay notice and severance indemnities.
In the event that the employment contract in Turkey is terminated in accordance with Article 25, the employee may apply for judicial remedy in accordance with the provisions of job security with the claim that the termination is not in accordance with the prescribed reasons.
Article 26 of the Labour Law stipulates that the authority to terminate the contract granted to the employer in case of non-compliance with the morality and goodwill conditions specified in Article 25 cannot be used after six working days starting from the day the employer learns that the employee has engaged in such behavior and in any case after one year from the date of the act. As per the provision of the article, if the employee has gained financial benefit in the incident, the one-year period will not apply.
This six-day and one-year period is not a limitation period, but a forfeiture period. Therefore, it will be taken into consideration ex officio.
The starting date of the statute of limitations will start from the date of the end of the investigation if the claim needs to be investigated, or from the date of the submission of the opinion to the approval of the employer or his/her representative authorised to terminate the employment if it needs to go through certain stages (such as the decision of the disciplinary board).
Article 26 also states that the employer reserves the right to demand compensation from the employee if the employer terminates the employment within the prescribed period due to the circumstances set out in Article 25.
Article 26 also states that the employer reserves the right to request compensation from the employee if the employer terminates the employment within the prescribed period due to the circumstances set out in Article 25.
