Cash Wage Support and Termination Ban Extended 2 Months

Cash wage support and termination ban due to Covid-19 reasons have been extended to March 17, 2021.

The decision was published with the Official Gazette dated 30.12.2020 and numbered 31350.

The related regulations are set forth in the Temporary Article 10 of the Labor Law as below:

"Temporary Article 10 - Regardless of whether this Law is covered or not, any employment or service contract does not comply with the rules of ethics and good faith in paragraph (II) of the first paragraph of Article 25 and other relevant laws, the expiration of fixed-term contracts, the closure of the workplace for any reason and the termination of its activity, all kinds of service purchases made in accordance with the relevant legislation and the termination of the work in construction works, it cannot be terminated by the employer for a period of three months from the effective date of this article.

The employer may leave the worker entirely or partially on unpaid leave for a period of three months from the effective date of this article. Being entitled to unpaid leave under this article does not give the employee the right to terminate the contract based on the justified reason.

In violation of the provisions of this article, the employer or his / her representative, who terminates the employment contract, is given an administrative fine at the monthly gross minimum wage amount for the employee whose contract is terminated.

The President is authorized to extend the three-month periods in the first and second paragraphs up to six months."

In Which Cases Can the Employer Terminate the Employment Agreement?

The terminations can be done within the scope of the Temporary Article 10 of the Labor Law; "Regardless of whether this Law is covered or not, any employment or service contract does not comply with the rules of ethics and good faith in paragraph (II) of the first paragraph of Article 25 and other relevant laws, the expiration of fixed-term contracts, the closure of the workplace for any reason and the termination of its activity, all kinds of service purchases made in accordance with the relevant legislation and the termination of the work in construction works."

What is the Sanction for Violating the Termination Ban?

As per the Labor Law Temporary Article 10, an administrative fine of gross minimum wage (3.577.50 TRY for 2021) would be applied for each employee.

In addition, according to the statements of the short-term employment regulated in the Temporary Article 23 of Law No. 4447, employees should not be dismissed / terminated if the employer / employees benefit from short term employment allowance. If the employer terminates an employment contract within this period, the short-term employment of the workplace will be canceled and all short-term employment allowances will be requested from the employer with interest.

You can find below the related Article 23 (Law No:4447):

"For the short-employment applications made for the compelling reason originating from the new coronavirus (Covid-19), valid until 30/6/2020, excluding the termination of the service contract envisaged in the third paragraph of the additional article 2 for the worker to qualify for the short-time working allowance the provision to fulfill the conditions of entitlement to unemployment insurance, short working start date those who have been subjected to service contract for the last 60 days, have worked for 450 days insured in the last three years unemployment insurance premium is applied as paid. Those who do not meet this condition, with the period not to exceed the short employment period can continue to benefit from the allowance for the time remaining from the last unemployment benefit entitlement.

In order to benefit from short term employment under this article, employees should not be dismissed / terminated by the employer, except for the reasons mentioned in the clause (II) of the first paragraph of Article 25 of the Law No. 4857 during the study period.

Applications made under this article are concluded within 60 days from the date of application.

The President is authorized to extend the application date made under this article until 31/12/2020 and to differentiate the days specified in the first paragraph."

As per the statements of this article, if the workplaces benefiting from the short-term employment allowance terminates an employment contract within the short-term employment period, their short-term employment allowances will be canceled and all allowances will be requested from the employer together with the interest. Therefore, this point also needs attention.

You can reach the Official Gazette about that extension via the link (in Turkish).