According to Article 15 of the annual leave board regulation in Turkey, an annual leave committee must be established in workplaces with more than one hundred employees.
The annual leave board in Turkey consists of three members, one representing the employer or his representative and one representing the workers. The worker representative must be elected by the trade union representatives. However, if there is no trade union representative, these members must be elected by open ballot at a meeting where more than half of the workplace workers are present. The number of elected members shall be determined by the number of substitute members. In the absence of the full members, one of the substitute members shall attend the meeting upon the call of the chairman. Elections shall be renewed every two years. The old members shall continue their duties until the new permission board is elected. For new workplaces to be opened after the entry into force of the Regulation, the election must be held within one year following the date the workplace becomes operational.
These full and substitute members must be announced to the workplace by the employer. The leave committee will be chaired by the employer’s representative. The duties and authorities of the leave committee are as follows
– To submit the leave schedules to be prepared according to the submitted leave requests for the approval of the employer.
– To prepare the leave schedules by taking into consideration the seniority of the workers, the necessity or obstacles they have in terms of using the leave in a certain period, the uninterrupted execution of the work and the number of workers.
– To organise camps and trips every year in order to make the paid leaves more useful, to investigate the possible measures to be taken in this regard and to make proposals to the employer.
– To examine the wishes and complaints of the workers regarding their annual leave rights and to notify the employer and the relevant worker of the result.
In order to fullfill the duties assigned to it, it is essential for the leave committee to convene during the preparation of annual leave board schedules in Turkey and, if necessary, during working hours at the request of the chairman. The decisions taken and the work done at the meetings are written in the decision book of the leave committee and signed (Article 17 of the Regulation).
In workplaces where the number of workers is less than one hundred, the duties of the leave committee shall be carried out by the employer or the employer’s representative or a person appointed by them and a representative to be elected by the workers among themselves (Article 18 of the Regulation).
