Learn how termination of employment in Turkey works under Turkish labor law, including valid and just cause dismissal, notice periods, severance pay, reinstatement claims, mandatory mediation, collective redundancy rules, and key employer risks.
Termination of Employment in Turkey
Termination of employment in Turkey is one of the most heavily regulated areas of Turkish labor law. For employers, dismissal is not merely an operational decision. It is a legal process shaped by Labor Law No. 4857, the preserved severance regime under Article 14 of former Law No. 1475, and the mandatory mediation framework under Labor Courts Law No. 7036. A termination that looks simple in practice may trigger notice pay, severance pay, bad-faith compensation, reinstatement exposure, idle-time wages, and procedural disputes if the statutory rules are not followed carefully.
For employees, Turkish law distinguishes between ordinary termination with notice, immediate termination for just cause, and dismissal requiring a valid reason under the job security regime. For employers, the main risk is assuming that contract language or workplace policy can override statutory protections. In Turkey, termination law is driven primarily by mandatory rules, and those rules become even stricter when the employee works under an indefinite-term contract and falls within the job security system.
This guide explains the main legal framework on termination of employment in Turkey in a practical, SEO-focused format. It covers legal grounds for dismissal, notice periods, just-cause termination, severance pay, reinstatement claims, mandatory mediation, collective redundancies, and the main employer risks that arise when the dismissal process is mishandled.
1. The Legal Framework for Termination of Employment in Turkey
The main statute governing dismissal is Labor Law No. 4857. Article 17 regulates notice termination for indefinite-term contracts. Articles 18 through 21 regulate job security, valid reason dismissals, reinstatement claims, and the consequences of invalid termination. Articles 24 and 25 regulate immediate termination for just cause by the employee and the employer. Article 27 adds the employee’s right to job-search leave during the notice period, Article 28 requires a work certificate, and Article 29 regulates collective redundancies. Severance pay continues to be governed through Article 14 of former Law No. 1475 because Article 120 of Labor Law No. 4857 preserved that provision.
Termination disputes are also shaped by procedure. Labor Courts Law No. 7036 makes mediation a mandatory precondition for lawsuits concerning employee or employer receivables, compensation claims arising from employment relationships, and reinstatement claims. If a party files such a case without first applying to mediation, the lawsuit is dismissed for lack of this procedural requirement. That procedural layer is one of the defining features of modern labor litigation in Turkey.
2. Ordinary Termination With Notice
Under Article 17, indefinite-term employment contracts cannot ordinarily be terminated without prior notice unless a just-cause ground exists. The statutory minimum notice periods depend on the employee’s length of service: two weeks for service under six months, four weeks for service from six months to one and a half years, six weeks for service from one and a half years to three years, and eight weeks for service exceeding three years. The statute expressly states that these periods are minimum periods and may be increased by contract.
If the terminating party fails to observe the required notice period, that party must pay compensation equal to the wage corresponding to the notice period. Turkish law also allows the employer to terminate immediately by paying the notice-period wage in advance instead of making the employee work during the notice period. Importantly, however, paying notice upfront does not eliminate the employer’s obligations under the job security provisions in Articles 18 through 21 where those provisions apply.
A critical point for employers is that notice periods apply only to indefinite-term employment contracts. The Ministry of Labour’s official FAQ states that the statutory notice rules are provided only for indefinite-term contracts and that employers do not have the same notice obligation in fixed-term employment relationships. This makes correct contract classification highly important at the start of the relationship, because a misclassified fixed-term contract may later be treated as indefinite and expose the employer to notice-related claims.
3. Valid Reason Dismissal and the Job Security Regime
Not every lawful termination in Turkey is based merely on notice. Article 18 introduces the job security regime. In workplaces employing 30 or more employees, an employer terminating an employee with at least six months of seniority under an indefinite-term contract must rely on a valid reason arising from the employee’s competence, conduct, or the requirements of the enterprise, workplace, or work itself. For underground workers, the six-month seniority threshold is not required.
The same article also identifies several matters that do not constitute valid reasons for dismissal. These include union membership, participation in union activities during non-working hours or during working hours with employer consent, acting as a workplace union representative, applying to administrative or judicial authorities to pursue statutory or contractual rights or to fulfill legal obligations, and discriminatory reasons such as race, color, sex, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, birth, religion, political views, and similar grounds. Article 18 also states that absence during the periods in which female employees may not legally work under Article 74, and temporary absence due to illness or accident within the waiting period referred to in Article 25/I(b), are not valid grounds for dismissal.
There are also exclusions. Article 18 states that certain high-level employer representatives are outside this job security framework, including those who manage the whole enterprise and their assistants, and workplace managers with both overall management authority and the authority to hire and dismiss employees. Employers should therefore analyze not only headcount and seniority, but also whether the employee falls within one of these limited exclusions.
4. Procedural Rules for Dismissal
Under Article 19, the employer must make the termination notice in writing and must state the reason for dismissal clearly and definitively. In addition, an indefinite-term employment contract cannot be terminated for reasons relating to the employee’s conduct or performance without first obtaining the employee’s defense, except where the employer relies on the just-cause grounds under Article 25/II. This is one of the most important procedural safeguards in Turkish employment law. An employer may believe it has a strong substantive ground, but still lose a reinstatement case if it fails to follow the required method.
The Ministry’s official FAQ repeats the same rule in accessible terms: the employer must notify termination in writing, specify the reason clearly and definitively, and may not dismiss an employee based on conduct or performance without first taking the employee’s defense, unless Article 25/II applies. In practice, this means poorly drafted termination letters, vague allegations, or undocumented performance complaints can significantly weaken the employer’s position.
5. Immediate Termination for Just Cause by the Employee
Article 24 allows the employee to terminate immediately, without waiting for the end of the term or the notice period, in specified situations. These are grouped under health reasons, violations of morality and good faith, and force majeure. The health grounds include situations where the work itself becomes dangerous for the employee’s health or life, or where the employer or another employee with whom the employee has direct and close contact suffers from a contagious or job-incompatible illness.
The morality and good-faith grounds are especially important in practice. Article 24 includes, among other things, misleading the employee about essential points of the employment contract, insults or acts violating the honor of the employee or family members, sexual harassment by the employer, threats or criminal conduct by the employer, failure to take necessary measures when the employee is sexually harassed at work by another employee or a third person, failure to calculate or pay wages in accordance with law or contract, and failure to apply working conditions properly. It also covers force majeure situations causing work stoppage in the workplace for more than one week. For employees, wage non-payment and serious workplace misconduct are therefore not merely complaints; they may become statutory grounds for immediate termination.
6. Immediate Termination for Just Cause by the Employer
Article 25 gives the employer a mirrored but separate right of immediate termination for just cause. The employer may terminate without waiting for the contract term or the notice period for health reasons, morality and good-faith violations, force majeure, and certain detention-related situations. Under the health provisions, the employer may terminate where illness caused by the employee’s intentional conduct, disorderly life, or alcohol addiction leads to absence beyond specified thresholds, or where the employee suffers from an incurable illness and a medical board determines that work at the workplace is objectionable. For other illnesses, accidents, birth, and pregnancy-related absences, the employer’s immediate termination right arises only after the waiting period exceeds the Article 17 notice period by six weeks.
Under the morality and good-faith category, Article 25 includes cases such as misrepresenting essential qualifications when entering into the contract, insulting the employer or family members, sexual harassment of another employee, assaultive or abusive conduct, coming to work drunk or under the influence of drugs or using such substances at work, breach of trust, theft, disclosure of trade secrets, committing a crime at the workplace punishable by more than seven days’ imprisonment without suspension, repeated unauthorized absence, persistent refusal to perform duties after reminder, and endangering workplace safety or causing significant damage. The statute also permits immediate termination if force majeure prevents the employee from working for more than one week, or if detention or arrest causes absence exceeding the Article 17 notice period.
A further timing rule matters greatly here. Article 26 states that where the immediate termination right is based on violations of morality and good faith under Articles 24 and 25, the right must be exercised within six business days from the date the other party learns of the conduct, and in any event within one year from the occurrence of the act. The one-year limit does not apply if the employee obtained material benefit from the event. Employers who delay too long after learning of misconduct can therefore lose the right to rely on immediate just-cause termination.
7. Reinstatement Claims and Invalid Termination
Article 20 provides the route for challenging dismissals under the job security regime. An employee who claims that no reason was given for termination, or that the stated reason was not valid, must apply to a mediator within one month from notification of the dismissal. If the mediation ends without settlement, the employee may file a lawsuit in the labor court within two weeks from the date of the final mediation record. The statute also places the burden of proving that the dismissal was based on a valid reason on the employer, while the employee must prove any claim that the real reason was another unlawful ground.
If the court or agreed private arbitrator determines that the employer did not rely on a valid reason, Article 21 requires the employer to reinstate the employee within one month. If the employer fails to do so after the employee applies, the employer must pay compensation of at least four months’ wages and up to eight months’ wages. In addition, the employee is entitled to up to four months’ wages and other rights for the period out of work until the decision becomes final. The statute also states that these amounts are calculated on the basis of the wage at the date of the lawsuit.
The Ministry’s official FAQ adds further practical deadlines. After the reinstatement decision becomes final, the employee must apply to the employer within ten business days to start work. If the employee does not apply within that period, the original termination is deemed valid and the employer remains liable only for the legal consequences of that original dismissal. The FAQ also confirms that if the employer does not reinstate the employee within one month after the employee’s application, the statutory reinstatement compensation becomes payable.
8. Severance Pay and Notice Pay After Termination
Severance pay in Turkey is not directly regulated in the operative body of Law No. 4857; instead, Article 120 of that law preserved Article 14 of former Law No. 1475. The Ministry’s official materials likewise explain severance pay within this preserved framework. As a general rule, when a termination qualifies for severance, the employee receives 30 days’ gross wage for each full year of service, with proportional calculation for additional periods. The calculation is based on the last wage, and the law also provides that the same period of service cannot generate severance pay more than once.
The Ministry’s FAQ also states that, as a rule, an employee who resigns voluntarily does not receive severance pay, although statutory exceptions exist. That distinction is important in practice because not every employee departure is legally treated the same way. Employers should therefore avoid assuming that every resignation defeats severance exposure, just as employees should avoid assuming that every dismissal automatically creates severance entitlement. The exact legal ground for termination remains decisive.
Notice pay is separate. If the employer dismisses the employee without a just-cause ground and without complying with Article 17 notice periods, the employee can claim notice compensation. The Ministry’s FAQ expressly states that where the employer terminates without observing notice and the dismissal is not based on one of the just causes recognized in the Labor Law, the employer must pay compensation equal to the wage corresponding to the notice period. The same logic applies in reverse where the employee resigns without notice and without a lawful justification.
9. Bad-Faith Dismissal and Other Employer Risks
One often overlooked employer risk is bad-faith compensation. Article 17 states that for employees who fall outside the scope of Articles 18 through 21, if the employer terminates by abusing the right of dismissal, the employee is entitled to compensation equal to three times the notice period. If the employer also failed to observe the notice requirement itself, notice compensation remains separately payable. This means that being outside the formal job security regime does not leave an employer free from dismissal-related liability.
Another frequently missed obligation is job-search leave. Under Article 27, during the notice period the employer must allow the employee to use job-search leave during working hours without wage deduction, and this leave cannot be less than two hours per day. If the employer fails to provide the leave, the employee must be paid for that period, and if the employee is made to work during job-search leave, the employer must pay the employee the normal wage for the leave period plus an additional 100 percent premium for the time worked. For employers, this is a classic example of a small procedural omission becoming a direct monetary claim.
Article 28 creates a further post-termination duty: the employer must provide the departing employee with a document showing the type and duration of the work performed. If the document is not provided on time, or if it contains incorrect information, the employee or even a new employer suffering damage may claim compensation from the former employer. In other words, employer risk does not end on the date of dismissal.
10. Collective Redundancies in Turkey
Termination risk becomes more complex in collective redundancy situations. Article 29 applies where the employer wishes to dismiss employees for economic, technological, structural, or similar reasons related to the enterprise, workplace, or work. The employer must notify workplace union representatives, the relevant regional directorate, and the Turkish Employment Agency at least 30 days in advance. The statute sets numerical thresholds: at least 10 employees in workplaces employing 20 to 100 employees, at least 10 percent of employees in workplaces employing 101 to 300 employees, and at least 30 employees in workplaces employing 301 or more, if dismissed within one month under Article 17.
The notification must include the reasons for the redundancies, the number and groups of employees affected, and the time period in which the dismissals will occur. Meetings with workplace union representatives must address preventing dismissals, reducing the number of dismissed workers, or minimizing the negative impact on employees. Termination notices take legal effect only 30 days after the notification of the employer’s collective dismissal intention to the regional authority. The employer also may not use the collective redundancy rules to circumvent Articles 18 through 21; if it does, employees may still bring claims under the job security provisions.
11. Mandatory Mediation and Limitation Risk
Labor Courts Law No. 7036 makes mediation mandatory not only for reinstatement claims but also for employee and employer receivables and compensation claims based on law or employment contracts. That includes many termination-related claims such as notice pay, severance disputes, and other monetary consequences of dismissal. The claimant must attach the final mediation record to the lawsuit; otherwise, the court gives a short period to cure the omission, and if it is not cured the case is dismissed procedurally. Direct filing without first applying to mediation also results in procedural dismissal.
Termination claims also involve limitation issues. The Labor Law’s additional limitation provision states that the limitation period is five years for annual leave pay and for listed termination-related compensation items including severance pay, compensation arising from termination without compliance with notice requirements, bad-faith compensation, and compensation arising from termination in breach of the equal-treatment principle. Employers managing old files and employees considering delayed action both need to keep that time limit in mind.
Conclusion
Termination of employment in Turkey is not a one-step act. It is a legally structured process that requires employers to classify the contract correctly, identify whether notice or just-cause rules apply, assess whether the employee is protected by the job security regime, prepare a legally sufficient written notice, obtain a defense where required, calculate notice and severance implications, observe job-search leave, and anticipate mediation and possible litigation.
For employers, the major legal risks are clear: using vague termination reasons, treating performance problems informally, missing procedural requirements, confusing valid reason with just cause, overlooking severance consequences, mismanaging collective redundancies, and assuming that paying notice compensation automatically cures an unlawful dismissal. For employees, the key lesson is that deadlines matter: one month to apply to mediation for reinstatement, two weeks to sue after failed mediation, and ten business days to apply back to the employer after a final reinstatement decision. In Turkish labor law, dismissal disputes are often won or lost not only on the facts, but on timing and procedure.
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