Employment Lawyer in Istanbul, Turkey

An employment lawyer in Turkey advises on severance and notice pay, reinstatement claims, unpaid wages and overtime, workplace harassment, and the drafting or review of employment contracts. For a foreign employee, an employment lawyer in Istanbul will also typically address how a dismissal or resignation interacts with that employee's work permit and residence status, since the two are often closely linked.

Our office is in Istanbul. Files are followed at the mediation offices and labour courts of Istanbul and, where the employer or the workplace is located there, before the courts in Ankara and other cities. On the employer side, the work covers employment contracts, workplace rules, hiring foreign staff, dismissal procedures and representation in mediation.

Yes. The Labour Act No. 4857 applies to people working in Turkey for an employer under an employment contract, whatever their nationality. Its rules on wages, working hours, leave, notice, severance pay and job security do not distinguish between Turkish and foreign employees. What changes the answer in a given case is not the passport but the facts: how long the person worked, how many workers the employer has, whether the contract is open-ended or fixed-term, and who ended it and why.

For a foreign employee, one extra layer exists: the work permit and the residence that depends on it. That layer is explained further down this page and, in more detail, in our guide Severance Pay in Turkey If You Are Fired.

An employment contract exists when one side works under the other's direction and the other side pays a wage (Labour Act, Art. 8). Most contracts need no special form, but the type of contract matters a great deal when the relationship ends.

For 2026 the monthly minimum wage is TRY 33,030.00 gross, which is TRY 28,075.50 net after the employee's social security and unemployment insurance contributions. It has applied since 1 January 2026, and no mid-year increase was made in July 2026. The minimum wage is set by the Minimum Wage Determination Commission and published in the Official Gazette (Labour Act, Art. 39). It applies to foreign and Turkish workers alike, and a lower wage for full-time work cannot validly be agreed.

Normal working time is at most 45 hours a week (Labour Act, Art. 63). Unless agreed otherwise, it is divided equally among the working days. The parties may agree to distribute it differently, provided no day exceeds eleven hours and the weekly average over two months (up to four months by collective agreement) stays within the normal limit.

An employee who has worked at least one year, including the probationary period, is entitled to paid annual leave, and the right cannot be waived (Labour Act, Art. 53). The minimum is 14 days for one to five years of service, 20 days for more than five and less than fifteen years, and 26 days for fifteen years or more. Employees aged eighteen or younger, and those aged fifty or older, receive at least 20 days. Contracts and collective agreements may give more.

An employee who has worked the working days of the week is entitled to an uninterrupted rest of at least 24 hours within each seven-day period, paid without work (Labour Act, Art. 46). Since a 2025 amendment, in licensed tourism accommodation the weekly rest day may, at the employee's written request or with written consent, be given within four days after it is earned. An employee who works on a national or public holiday receives an extra full day's wage for each such day on top of the normal pay (Art. 47).

Since 1 May 2026, the protected period around childbirth is 24 weeks in total: eight weeks before and sixteen weeks after the birth, with two more weeks before the birth in a multiple pregnancy (Labour Act, Art. 74, as amended by Law No. 7578). With a doctor's approval, the employee may work until two weeks before the birth, and the weeks worked are added to the period after the birth. During these weeks the Social Security Institution pays a temporary incapacity allowance, provided at least 90 days of short-term insurance premiums were reported in the year before the birth (Law No. 5510, Art. 18).

After the maternity period, the employee may take up to six months of unpaid leave on request. A mother may also request unpaid leave of half the weekly working time for 60 days after the first birth, 120 days after the second and 180 days after later births (Art. 74). Mothers of children under one year are entitled to one and a half hours of nursing leave a day, counted as working time. One parent may also ask to work part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age; the employer accommodates the request, and it cannot be treated as a valid reason for dismissal (Art. 13). Pregnancy and birth are not valid reasons for dismissal (Art. 18), and an employee cannot be treated differently because of pregnancy (Art. 5).

If wages are not paid within 20 days of the payment date, for reasons other than force majeure, the employee may refuse to work. Such refusal is not a strike, even when many employees do it together, and the employee cannot be dismissed or replaced for it. Unpaid wages carry the highest interest rate applied to bank deposits (Labour Act, Art. 34).

Wages that are not calculated or paid in accordance with the law or the contract are also a just cause for the employee to end the contract immediately (Art. 24/II-e). An employee who ends the contract on that ground after at least one year's service is entitled to severance pay. The limitation period for wage claims is five years (Art. 32). Our just cause termination deadline calculator sets out the grounds and the six-working-day period discussed below.

Severance pay (kıdem tazminatı) is still governed by Article 14 of the old Labour Act No. 1475, the only article of that law that remains in force. It is paid at 30 days' gross wages for each full year of service, with part-years paid proportionally. Periods of service with the same employer are added together, even if there were breaks or several workplaces. A quick estimate is available with our severance pay calculator.

An open-ended contract ends only after notice to the other side. The minimum notice periods depend on the employee's length of service: two weeks for less than six months, four weeks for six months to one and a half years, six weeks for one and a half to three years, and eight weeks for more than three years (Labour Act, Art. 17). Contracts may set longer periods.

The side that does not give notice pays the wages for the notice period as notice pay (ihbar tazminatı), calculated with regular benefits included. The employer may also end the contract at once by paying the notice wages in advance; doing so does not exclude the job security rules (Art. 17). Notice pay is not owed where the contract is ended for just cause. Our notice pay calculator applies these periods.

In workplaces covered by job security (see the next section), an employer ending an open-ended contract needs a valid reason related to the employee's competence or conduct, or to the needs of the business, the workplace or the job (Labour Act, Art. 18). The notice of termination has to be in writing and state the reason clearly and precisely. An employee cannot be dismissed for reasons related to conduct or performance without first being given the chance to respond to the allegations (Art. 19).

The law lists reasons that do not constitute a valid reason for dismissal, including union membership or activity, applying to the authorities or the courts against the employer to pursue rights, race, colour, sex, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, birth, religion and political opinion, absence during maternity leave, and temporary absence due to illness or accident within the statutory waiting period (Art. 18). A full guide for foreign employees, with a worked example covering severance, notice and leave pay together, is in Severance Pay in Turkey If You Are Fired.

An employee with at least six months' service at a workplace employing at least thirty employees may seek reinstatement where dismissed without valid cause. The process begins with mediation; if no agreement is reached, an action is brought before the labour court. If the court finds the dismissal invalid, the employer either takes the employee back within one month of the employee's application or pays compensation.

Employees outside the job security rules, for example in a workplace with fewer than 30 workers or with less than six months' service, are not without protection. If the employer abused the right to terminate, the employee is owed bad-faith compensation equal to three times the notice period wages, plus notice pay if notice was not given (Labour Act, Art. 17).

Where the employer treated the employee differently because of language, race, colour, sex, disability, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion or similar reasons, the employee may claim appropriate compensation of up to four months' wages in addition to the rights lost (Art. 5). Once the employee shows facts that strongly suggest such a breach, the burden shifts to the employer to show that there was none.

The employer may end the contract immediately, without notice and without severance pay, in the situations listed in Article 25/II of the Labour Act. They include misleading the employer about essential qualifications when the contract was made, insulting the employer, sexual harassment of another employee, assault, coming to work drunk or under the influence of drugs, dishonesty such as theft or disclosure of trade secrets, a crime at the workplace punishable by more than seven days' imprisonment that is not suspended, persistent refusal to perform duties after a reminder, and endangering work safety or damaging workplace property beyond the value of thirty days' wages through the employee's own will or negligence. An employee who disputes the reason may challenge it under the reinstatement rules (Art. 25).

An ordinary resignation ends the contract after the notice period and does not give severance pay. A termination for just cause by the employee is different: the contract ends immediately and, after at least one year's service, severance pay is owed. Pay for unused leave, earned wages and overtime are owed in both cases.

Employers often present a document stating that all rights have been received. Under the Code of Obligations, a release (ibraname) of the employee's claims is valid only if it is in writing, signed at least one month after the contract ended, states the type and amount of each claim clearly, and the payment is complete and made through a bank (Art. 420). A release lacking these elements is null. A document that does not reflect full payment counts only as a receipt for the amount actually paid, and even then the payment has to be made through a bank.

The same article makes a penalty clause that binds only the employee invalid. Settlements reached before a mediator follow different rules and are covered in the next section: they are final for the matters agreed.

For employee or employer claims and compensation based on the law, an individual contract or a collective agreement, and for reinstatement claims, applying to a mediator is a condition of filing a lawsuit. A case filed without it is dismissed on procedure (Labour Courts Law No. 7036, Art. 3). The rule does not apply to compensation claims arising from work accidents and occupational diseases, or to the related determination and recourse actions.

Severance pay, notice pay, bad-faith compensation, compensation for termination in breach of equal treatment, and pay for unused annual leave are time-barred after five years (Labour Act, Additional Art. 3, added by Law No. 7036). Wage claims, including overtime and holiday pay, are also subject to a five-year limitation period (Art. 32). For leave pay, the period starts on the date the contract ends (Art. 59).

Work accident compensation claims are generally subject to the ten-year period of the Code of Obligations (Art. 146), as applied in court practice. The one-month reinstatement deadline is much shorter and runs separately. The main deadlines are gathered in the table further down this page.

A work permit is cancelled when the foreigner's work ends for any reason (International Workforce Law No. 6735, Art. 15/2-ç). The law requires the employer to notify the Ministry of Labour within fifteen days when a foreign employee's work starts or ends (Art. 22). A valid work permit counts as a residence permit (Law on Foreigners and International Protection No. 6458, Art. 27), so when it ends, the right to stay has to rest on another basis, such as a short-term or family residence permit, if its conditions are met.

The Labour Act's reinstatement rules contain no residence rule of their own. A labour case can continue while the former employee lives abroad, through a lawyer holding a power of attorney. Staying without a valid permit can lead to fines and entry bans, explained in Deportation and Entry Bans in Turkey and on our immigration lawyer in Turkey page.

The law requires employers, as a rule, to register an employee with the Social Security Institution (SGK) before the employee starts work (Law No. 5510, Art. 8), and employers of foreign staff have the same social security duties (Law No. 6735, Art. 22). Registration gives health insurance, counts days towards a pension and covers work accidents. Where Turkey has a bilateral social security agreement with the employee's country, its provisions are reserved.

An insured employee whose contract ends on one of the grounds listed in the law may receive unemployment benefit from the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR). The qualifying grounds include dismissal with notice, termination for just cause by the employee, dismissal for health or force majeure reasons, expiry of a fixed-term contract, and closure or transfer of the workplace; an ordinary resignation and dismissal for misconduct do not qualify (Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447, Art. 51). The employee also needs 600 days of unemployment insurance premiums in the last three years and employment under a contract throughout the last 120 days before it ended (Art. 50).

The benefit is 40 percent of the average daily gross earnings of the last four months, capped at 80 percent of the gross minimum wage, about TRY 26,424 a month in 2026. It is paid for 180, 240 or 300 days for 600, 900 or 1,080 premium days (Art. 50). The application is made within thirty days after the contract ends, and any delay is deducted from the payment period (Art. 48). For a foreign employee, the residence question discussed above remains a separate matter.

A foreign employee insured with SGK under an employment contract is subject to the same pension rules as a Turkish employee. For those first insured after 30 April 2008, an old-age pension requires 7,200 premium days for employees and the age of 58 for women and 60 for men; from 2036 the age rises in steps until it reaches 65 for both from 2048 (Law No. 5510, Art. 28). A reduced pension is available with at least 5,400 premium days and an age three years higher, up to 65.

Leaving work to retire, or after completing the insurance conditions for a pension other than age, is also a ground for severance pay (Law No. 1475, Art. 14). Questions about premium days and pension calculations are covered on our social security lawyer in Turkey page.

A work accident is an event that disables the insured person physically or mentally, immediately or later, and that happens at the workplace, because of the work done for the employer, while the employee is sent elsewhere on duty, during nursing breaks, or on transport provided by the employer to and from work (Law No. 5510, Art. 13). The employer is required to report it to the police at once and to SGK within three working days. SGK pays a temporary incapacity allowance for days off work and an income for permanent incapacity.

Where an occupational accident or disease results from the employer's breach of its duty of care, the employee, or the next of kin in the case of death, may claim pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages for the loss not covered by SGK; determining the degree of fault generally requires an expert report. These claims do not require mediation (Law No. 7036, Art. 3), and they can also be filed where the accident or the damage occurred or where the injured employee lives (Art. 6). The wider rules are on our compensation lawyer in Turkey page.

The employer is required to protect and respect the employee's personality, to maintain an honest order at work, and to take the measures needed to prevent psychological and sexual harassment and further harm to those affected (Code of Obligations, Art. 417). Systematic exclusion, belittling, withholding of work, humiliating tasks or persistent unjustified criticism aimed at wearing an employee down is recognised as mobbing. In court practice, such conduct has been accepted as a just cause for the employee to terminate the contract, with severance pay, and a claim for non-pecuniary damages may also be brought.

An employee may undertake in writing not to compete with the employer after the contract ends. The clause is valid only if the job gave the employee access to customers, production secrets or the employer's business, and use of that knowledge could cause the employer significant harm (Code of Obligations, Art. 444). It cannot contain unfair limits on place, time and type of work that endanger the employee's economic future, and except in special circumstances it cannot last longer than two years; a judge can narrow an excessive clause (Art. 445).

An employee who breaches the clause compensates the employer's loss, or pays the agreed penalty (Art. 446). The non-compete ends if the employer has no real interest in keeping it, or if the employer ends the contract without just cause, or the employee ends it for a reason attributable to the employer (Art. 447). Separately, the duty of loyalty prohibits using or disclosing trade secrets during employment, and the duty of confidentiality continues after the contract ends to the extent needed to protect the employer's legitimate interests (Art. 396).

Remote work is an employment relationship, set up in writing, in which the employee performs the work at home or outside the workplace using technological communication tools, within the employer's organisation (Labour Act, Art. 14, added in 2016). The written contract covers the job description, how and where the work is done, working time, pay, the equipment supplied by the employer, and how the employer communicates with the employee. Remote employees cannot be treated differently from comparable employees solely because of the remote arrangement, and the employer remains responsible for informing and training them on health and safety. A Ministry of Labour regulation sets out the details.

Hybrid arrangements combining office and home days are common; the rules on working time, overtime, leave and termination apply in the same way. Moving an existing employee to or from remote work is a change in working conditions, discussed in the employer section below. Where someone works remotely from abroad for a Turkish employer, or from Turkey for a foreign employer, the governing law and the competent courts follow the private international law rules described earlier.

Foreign companies hiring in Turkey, and expatriates running their own businesses, are subject to the same rules as Turkish employers. The points below are those that most often lead to disputes or administrative fines.

The Labour Act does not apply to domestic services (Art. 4/e). The employment of nannies, housekeepers and live-in caregivers is governed instead by the employment contract provisions of the Code of Obligations. Those provisions require a weekly day off (Art. 421), at least two weeks of paid annual leave after one year of service, three weeks for workers under eighteen or over fifty (Art. 422), and notice of two, four or six weeks depending on length of service (Art. 432). The employer's duty to protect the worker's personality applies in the same way (Art. 417). Registration with social security remains an obligation of the household employer, and a foreign domestic worker also needs a work permit unless an exemption applies.

Labour courts hear disputes between employees and employers arising from the employment relationship, including relationships governed by the Code of Obligations (Labour Courts Law No. 7036, Art. 5). The case is filed where the defendant is domiciled on the date of filing, or where the work was done (Art. 6). In work accident compensation cases, the courts of the place of the accident or damage and of the injured employee's domicile are also competent. Contract clauses departing from these rules on jurisdiction are void.

Labour courts apply the simple procedure (Art. 7). Decisions can be appealed to the regional court of appeal and, where the conditions are met, to the Court of Cassation; appeal periods start when the judgment is served on the parties.

Leaving Turkey does not end the claims, and the five-year limitation periods keep running. Mediation and any lawsuit take place in Turkey, so a former employee abroad usually acts through a lawyer in Turkey holding a power of attorney, signed at a Turkish consulate or before a notary with an apostille. Mediation meetings can be attended through a lawyer (Law No. 7036, Art. 3). The one-month reinstatement deadline, however, runs regardless of where the employee is.

Lawyers' fees in Turkey cannot be agreed below the Attorneyship Minimum Fee Tariff (Avukatlık Asgari Ücret Tarifesi), which is prepared each year by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations on the basis of proposals from the local bar associations (Attorneyship Law No. 1136, Arts. 164 and 168). A fee may also be agreed as a percentage of the value of the claim, up to 25 percent.

In employment files, the fee is generally assessed against the value of the claims (severance, notice pay, unpaid wages), the number of separate claims, and whether the work covers only mediation or also a lawsuit; it can only be quoted once the file has been reviewed. Separately, at the end of a lawsuit the court orders the losing side to pay an attorney fee under the tariff, which by law belongs to the lawyer (Art. 164).

An employee's case is filed at the labour court where the employer is domiciled or where the work was performed (Article 6 of the Labour Courts Law No. 7036), after the mandatory mediation stage for wage and compensation claims. Someone who worked in Ankara and now lives in Istanbul may therefore file in Ankara. An employment lawyer in Turkey registered with a Turkish bar can act before the labour courts in every city.

We act as an employment lawyer in Istanbul and follow files before the mediation offices and labour courts in Ankara from Istanbul. Someone looking for an employment lawyer in Ankara because the employer is based there can therefore have the file followed from our Istanbul office. Severance and notice pay can be estimated with our severance pay calculator and notice pay calculator.