Employment
Labour Law No. 4857 with severance pay and job security provisions
Labour Law No. 4857 of 2003 governs most employment. Employees with at least six months' service in workplaces with 30 or more employees have job security protection requiring valid cause for dismissal, and severance pay accrues at 30 days' wages per year of service.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National. Labour courts have exclusive jurisdiction over employment disputes.
- Deadline — Mediation application contesting dismissal: one month from notice of termination, and mediation is compulsory before suit
- Deadline — Court action following unsuccessful mediation: two weeks from the final mediation report
Governing law
- Labour Law No. 48572003
- Law No. 6356 on Trade Unions and Collective Labour Agreements2012
- Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 63312012
In practice
Severance pay is the central feature of Turkish employment economics: an employee dismissed without just cause after a year of service receives 30 days' wages for each year, subject to a statutory ceiling. Job security provisions apply only in workplaces with 30 or more employees, so the threshold matters greatly. Since 2018 mediation has been a compulsory precondition for reinstatement and most monetary employment claims, and the one-month limit for applying is strictly enforced. Collective bargaining is governed by Law No. 6356, which imposes representativeness thresholds that in practice limit union coverage.