What is Job Seeking Leave?
Job seeking leave is a type of leave that an employee can use in the process of finding a new job before leaving their current job. This leave allows the employee to focus on job search activities and evaluate potential job opportunities. This right, which is provided to the employee to use within the notice period and on working days, is called "job seeking leave". Pursuant to Article 17 of the Labor Law No. 4857, in the event that the employee or the employer terminates the indefinite-term employment contract by giving a notice period, the employee must be given permission to search for a new job pursuant to Article 27 of the Labor Law. Article 27 defines the title "New Job Seeking Permission" as follows:
"Within the notice periods, the employer is obliged to give the employee the necessary job seeking leave to find a new job during working hours and without deduction of wages. The duration of the job seeking leave cannot be less than two hours a day and if the employee wishes, he/she may combine the hours of job seeking leave and use them collectively. However, the employee who wants to use the job seeking leave collectively must coincide it with the days before the day he/she will leave the job and notify the employer of this situation. If the employer does not grant the new job seeking leave or makes it incomplete, the wage for that period shall be paid to the worker. If the employer employs the worker during the job seeking leave, in addition to the wage that the worker will receive without any work by using the leave, he shall pay the wage for the period of employment with a one hundred percent increase."