New Updates for Work Life within the Scope of Covid-19

New measures have been introduced by the Government due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

In this context, the updates published in the Official Gazette dated 16/04/2020 and numbered 31102 are as follows:

Fund Support

Employees who have not benefit from short-term employment and who have been granted unpaid leave within the framework of the temporary article added to the Unemployment Insurance Law numbered 4447 and the temporary tenth article of the Labor Law numbered 4857 and those who have not been able to benefit from unemployment allowance after 15/3/2020, The Fund will be provided with 39.24 Turkish Lira cash support every day, during the prohibition of termination determined under the temporary article 10 of the Labor Law No. 4857, provided that it does not receive any old age pensions.

You can find the related article below:

ARTICLE 7 - The following temporary article has been added to the Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447, dated 25/8/1999.

"TEMPORARY ARTICLE 24 - Employment contracts were terminated within the scope of Article 51 after 15/3/2020 with the employees who had a work permit at the date of entry into force of this article, and who could not benefit from the short-time work allowance pursuant to the temporary article 10 of the Law No. 4857. According to the other provisions of the Law, the employees who cannot benefit from the unemployment allowance, as long as they do not have a termination pension from any social security institution and do not exceed the period to be terminated in the temporary 10th article of the Law numbered 4857, until the period of their unpaid leave, 39 24 Turkish Lira cash fee support is provided. No deduction can be made from payments made, except stamp tax.

In the event that it is determined that the employee who has been paid for unpaid leave under the scope of the first paragraph and who benefits from cash wage support is actually employed, the employer, the monthly gross minimum wage amount determined by article 39 of the Law numbered 4857 on the date of the act, for each employee employed and each month of employment. Administrative fines are imposed by the provincial directorates and the paid cash support is collected from the employer along with the legal interest to be processed from the date of payment.

Those who benefit from cash fee support within the scope of this article are not considered to be a dependent by the general health insurer or a general health insurer under the Law No. 5510, they are considered as general health insurers under the subparagraph (g) of the first paragraph of Article 60 of the same Law and the premiums related to general health insurance are covered by the Fund.

The Ministry is authorized to determine the payment procedures and principles regarding cash fee support and to eliminate any hesitations that may arise regarding the application of this article."

Short-term Employment Compliance Determination Will Not Be Done

With the temporary article added to the Law No. 4447, applications will be accepted according to the declaration of employers without making a suitability determination for short-term employment applications.

You can find the related article below:

ARTICLE 8 - The following provisional article has been added to Law No. 4447.

"TEMPORARY ARTICLE 25 - For short-term employment applications with compulsory reasons made by the employers due to the new coronavirus (Covid-19), a short-term employment allowance is made in accordance with the employer's declaration without waiting for completion of the determination of conformity. Excess and improper payments made due to the employer's providing incorrect information and documents are collected from the employer along with their legal interest."

In addition, the following related amendments were made in the Temporary Article 23 of the Law No. 4447:

ARTICLE 6 - In the last sentence of the second paragraph of the provisional article 23 of the Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447 dated 25/8/1999, the phrase “excluding the eligibility determinations” has been added.

Temporary Employment Guarantee

Temporary employment guarantee has been provided with the temporary article 10 added to the Labor Law No. 4857. According to this; The employment contract of any employee covered or not covered by this Law shall not be terminated by the employer except for the reasons indicated in the second paragraph of the first paragraph of Article 25 for three months from the date of entry into force of this article due to the public benefit required by the COVID-19 epidemic disease.

You can find below the related article below:

ARTICLE 9 - The following provisional article has been added to the Labor Law dated 22/5/2003 and numbered 4857.

"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 for a period of three months from the effective date of this article. Except for cases and similar reasons, it cannot be terminated by the employer.

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."

You can find below the link of the related official gazette (in Turkish):

https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2020/04/20200417-2.htm