The Constitutional Court Decided to Cancel Some Sentences of Article 6 of the Press Labor Law

With the Constitutional Court Decision published in the Official Gazette No. 32221 on June 14, 2023, it was concluded that some sentences of Article 6 of the Press Labor Law, which relate to the conditions for the journalist to be entitled to severance pay, were contrary to the equality principle of the Constitution and for this reason, it was decided to cancel the relevant sentences.

The relevant regulations subject to the cancelation decision of the Constitutional Court are as follows:

• The first paragraph of Article 6: “Journalists who have worked in the profession for at least five years are entitled to seniority.”
• The second sentence of seventh paragraph of Article 6: “However, less than six months of annual service shall not be taken into account of seniority.”

According to the relevant annulment decision of the Constitution, the 5-year professional seniority requirement which was required for journalists to be entitled to severance pay has been canceled. Thus, journalists will be entitled to severance pay by summing up their length of service with all the employers they work with and for, without any upper time limitation. The only exception to this is that if the journalist employee receives seniority payment for the works done for and with the previous employer, all his seniority up to that payment date will be liquidated. In addition, with the cancellation decision, periods of less than 6 months will be taken into account in the seniority calculation as well.

You can access relevant Official Gazette from here (In Turkish).

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