Employment Law Series · 6 of 8
Ending employment requires both a lawful ground and the procedure applicable to that ground. Ordinary termination with notice, immediate termination for just cause, expiry of a valid fixed term and an employee's resignation are different events with different consequences. A commercial or personnel decision alone does not answer every legal question.
1. Termination with notice
Article 17 of Labour Law No. 4857 governs ordinary termination of indefinite contracts. Its minimum notice periods are two weeks for service below 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. The exact service dates and boundary must be checked. Contractual periods may be more favourable but cannot reduce statutory minima.
The party failing to observe the applicable notice obligation may owe notice compensation. The employer may end the contract by paying the notice-period remuneration in advance. This does not remove job-security protection, discrimination rules or other mandatory obligations. Immediate termination on a proven statutory ground has a different notice regime.
During a notice period actually worked, Article 27 provides paid job-search leave of at least two hours daily. The employee may combine the hours subject to the statutory placement and notification rules. Refusal or work during this leave has separate payment consequences. Advance payment instead of a worked notice period should not be confused with leave used during continued work.
2. Valid reason and job-security protection
Article 18 generally protects indefinite-contract employees with at least six months of service in workplaces employing thirty or more workers, subject to its calculation and exclusion rules. Service with the same employer and employee aggregation across workplaces in the same industry require examination. Underground workers have a statutory exception to the six-month condition.
The exclusions cover managers and assistants directing the entire undertaking, and qualifying workplace managers who both direct the entire workplace and have hiring and dismissal authority. A managerial title alone is not decisive.
- Capacity or performance: objective, substantiated shortcomings may require assessment; a low rating or illness label does not automatically justify dismissal.
- Conduct: documented conduct that does not reach just-cause severity may support a valid reason in context.
- Operational needs: reduced orders, restructuring or closure of a department require genuine, consistently implemented reasons and assessment of feasible alternatives.
Protected characteristics, union activity, pursuing legal rights and statutory protected absences cannot simply be treated as valid reasons. Operational dismissal is examined under the last-resort principle; alternatives must be real and legally available. An employer cannot unilaterally cut contractual pay or hours just by calling it an alternative.
3. Immediate termination for just cause
Articles 24 and 25 contain separate grounds for employee and employer termination. For employers, the groups include qualifying health grounds; breaches of morality and good faith; compelling circumstances preventing work for more than a week; and detention or arrest causing absence beyond the Article 17 period.
Each ground has detailed elements. Illness alone is not enough: applicable absence thresholds, waiting periods, medical findings and special rules must be checked. Absence, theft, harassment, persistent refusal of duties or endangering safety also require the specific statutory facts and evidence, rather than a label.
An employee may have just cause for unpaid wages, qualifying employer misconduct, non-application of employment conditions or health grounds under Article 24. A qualifying employee termination may support severance if the separate statutory service and entitlement requirements are met. It does not automatically produce notice compensation for the employee, and every resignation is not a just-cause termination.
4. Procedure and proof
- Identify the applicable regime: determine contract type, job-security coverage, ground and relevant deadlines.
- Written reasons: where Article 19 applies, the employer's notice must be written and state the reason clearly and definitively. Do not treat its requirements as identical for every statutory termination type.
- Defence: in the applicable job-security framework, a conduct- or performance-based dismissal requires obtaining the employee's defence. Article 25/II is expressly reserved. A defence is not universally mandatory before every health or other immediate termination; additional contractual or collective rules must also be checked.
- Service: ensure the notice reaches its recipient and preserve proof.
- Consistency: evidence must support the stated ground. A later, unrelated ground cannot simply repair an unlawful dismissal.
A procedural defect may invalidate a dismissal in the applicable framework, but does not automatically guarantee that every employee wins reinstatement. Coverage, timely mediation and proceedings, the ground and evidence still matter. Under Article 20, a qualifying reinstatement challenge generally requires mediation within one month of service and, if unresolved, an action within two weeks of the final mediation record.
5. Common mistakes
- Using only a spoken instruction such as not to return tomorrow, creating proof and validity issues.
- Missing Article 26 deadlines or applying them to the wrong type of ground.
- Failing to obtain a defence where required, or assuming it is required in every case.
- Using an abstract operational label without supporting facts.
- Pressuring an employee to sign a resignation instead of accurately recording the real termination.
- Relying on unsupported absence allegations without examining permission or justification.
Before acting, ask: what facts are proved, which procedure applies and which deadline is running? The answer also determines notice, severance and possible reinstatement consequences.
Series navigation
Previous: occupational accidents and liability. Next: severance and notice compensation.
Sources
Ministry of Labour legislation: Labour Law No. 4857, Articles 17–27, and the surviving severance provision in Article 14 of Law No. 1475.
Reviewed on 27 October 2026. General information about Turkish law. Actual service, authority, notices and evidence require individual examination; Turkish statutory texts govern.