Injured at Work in Turkey? Compensation for Foreign Workers (2026)

What Counts as a Work Accident — Broader Than the Factory Floor

The definition comes from Article 13 of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510, and it is wider than most workers assume. A work accident is not only the incident on the workshop floor: it includes accidents that happen while the worker is anywhere in the workplace, while carrying out a task assigned by the employer even away from the premises, while travelling to a location the employer has sent them to, and while commuting in a vehicle provided by the employer. An injury during any of these counts, whether or not anyone was at fault.

One feature deserves emphasis, because it separates the work accident branch from the parts of social insurance workers know better: there is no minimum premium period. The protection attaches the moment the work does. A worker injured in their first week is covered on the same terms as a veteran of twenty years — a rule that matters disproportionately to foreign workers, who are overrepresented in short-term and newly started jobs.

The Employer's First Obligations — and Why the Notification Matters

After an accident, the employer has two immediate legal duties: to notify the law enforcement authorities at once, and to report the accident to the Social Security Institution within three working days. The SGK notification is not a formality — it is the document that opens the file, triggers the benefits, and fixes the official version of what happened, where and when.

It is also the step most often skipped when the injured worker is foreign, informal, or both. An employer who never registered the worker has an obvious incentive to treat the accident as something that happened somewhere else, and injured workers are sometimes urged to describe a workplace injury as a private mishap at the hospital. This is the single most damaging thing a worker can agree to. The first medical record is evidence of the highest order; a worker who tells the emergency doctor the truth — where it happened, doing what — has anchored the case, and one who does not has handed the employer a defence. Where the employer fails to notify, the worker or their representative can report the accident to SGK directly, and the failure itself exposes the employer to administrative fines and to liability for what SGK pays.

What SGK Pays — Regardless of Fault

The state's side of the ledger runs through SGK and does not depend on proving the employer did anything wrong. Medical treatment for the injury is covered. During the recovery period, the worker receives a temporary incapacity allowance — a daily payment replacing part of the wage for each day of certified incapacity. If the injury leaves a permanent mark, and the loss of earning capacity in the worker's occupation is assessed at 10% or more, the worker is entitled to a permanent incapacity income — a continuing payment scaled to the degree of loss. Where the accident is fatal, the worker's spouse, children and dependent parents receive a survivors' income, alongside a funeral grant.

Two practical notes. First, the incapacity assessments are made through official medical board reports, and they can be challenged — an initial rating is a starting position, not a verdict. Second, SGK's payments are the floor, not the ceiling: they replace part of the loss by design, and the remainder is what the civil claim against the employer exists to recover.

The Claim Against the Employer — Fault, and What It Buys

Turkish law places the safety of the workplace squarely on the employer. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 the employer must assess risks, provide equipment and training, and organise the work so that it does not injure the people doing it; under Article 417 of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 the employer owes each worker a duty of protection that includes taking every measure occupational safety requires. An accident traceable to a breach of these duties — the missing guardrail, the training never given, the machine never maintained — makes the employer liable for the losses SGK does not cover.

The compensation has several heads. Material compensation covers the economic loss of the injury: the earning capacity lost over a working life, calculated actuarially on wages, age and the degree of incapacity — with the capitalised value of SGK's payments deducted so that nothing is paid twice. Moral compensation, under Article 56 of the Code of Obligations, addresses the pain and the altered life itself, for the worker and, in cases of severe injury or death, for close family members as well. In fatal accidents, those the worker supported claim for the loss of that support. The worker's own share of fault, if any, reduces the award proportionally — but it rarely eliminates it, because the courts hold employers to the organiser's standard: it was the employer's job to build a workplace where a worker's lapse would not cost a limb.

One procedural point is worth stating precisely, because it is often gotten wrong: compensation claims arising from work accidents are not subject to the mandatory pre-litigation mediation that applies to ordinary labour claims such as severance or unpaid wages. Law No. 7036 on Labour Courts expressly excludes work accident and occupational disease compensation claims — together with the related determination and recourse actions — from the mediation precondition, so the injured worker can file directly in the labour court. The parties remain free to attempt voluntary mediation if both wish, but no settlement should be discussed, let alone signed, before the compensation has been properly calculated. Limitation periods in this field are generally generous — as a rule ten years — but the evidence does not wait nearly that long.

No Work Permit, No Registration — Still Protected

Here is the part of the law that the most vulnerable workers most need to hear. A worker whom the employer never registered with SGK is still protected when a work accident happens: the accident is treated as that of an insured worker, SGK provides the treatment and the benefits, and the institution then pursues the employer for what the failure to register cost it — with penalties on top. The employer's shortcut becomes the employer's bill.

The same logic extends to foreign workers employed without a work permit. Unauthorised work has its own consequences under the work permit regime — administrative fines, and immigration exposure for the worker. But it does not erase the rights that grew out of the work actually performed: the established position in Turkish practice is that a foreign worker employed without a permit retains the claims arising from a work accident, and the employer cannot invoke its own unlawful employment arrangement as a shield. Fear of the immigration consequences is what some employers count on. It is worth saying plainly: the compensation claim and the immigration file are separate tracks, the claim can be pursued through a lawyer even after the worker has left or been removed from Turkey, and silence protects exactly one party — the employer.

The First Days — What the Worker or the Family Should Do

The strength of a work accident case is largely decided in its first week. Tell the treating doctors accurately where and how the injury happened, and keep every medical document. Make sure the accident is reported — by the employer, or failing that, directly. Preserve what can disappear: names and numbers of co-workers who saw it happen, photographs of the scene and the equipment, the employment details (wage, hours, how payment was made) even if nothing was ever written down. Do not sign documents whose content is not fully understood — least of all in a language the worker cannot read; a paper presented as a formality at the hospital bed sometimes turns out to be a settlement or a statement rewriting the facts. Where documents need to move between languages — the worker's statement, foreign medical records, family documents for a survivors' claim — sworn translation is what makes them usable in the Turkish file, and handling the legal strategy and the certified translation in one office keeps the pieces aligned.

Compensation From Abroad — Workers and Families Outside Turkey

Neither the worker nor the family has to be in Turkey to pursue the claim. A worker who returned home to recover, or was removed after the accident, can instruct a lawyer through a power of attorney issued at a Turkish consulate or apostilled abroad, and the case proceeds without their presence. In fatal cases the same applies to families who have never set foot in Turkey: the survivors' claims are established with foreign civil status documents — marriage and birth certificates, heirship documentation — apostilled and sworn-translated into Turkish. The distance is administrative, not legal; what it demands is exactly the document-and-language work described above, done correctly the first time.

Frequently Asked Questions

I was injured at work but I have no work permit. Can I still claim? Yes. The established position in Turkish practice is that unauthorised employment does not erase work accident rights. SGK treats the accident as that of an insured worker, and the compensation claim against the employer stands. Unauthorised work has separate administrative consequences, but the claim and the immigration file are separate tracks.

My employer never registered me with SGK. Am I covered? Yes. The accident is treated as an insured event: SGK provides treatment and benefits, then recovers its outlay from the employer with penalties. The registration failure is the employer's liability, not the worker's loss.

What counts as a work accident? Under Article 13 of Law No. 5510: injuries in the workplace, while performing tasks assigned by the employer (including off-site), while travelling on assignment, and while commuting in employer-provided transport. Fault is irrelevant to the definition.

Who reports the accident, and when? The employer must notify law enforcement immediately and SGK within three working days. If the employer does not, the worker or their representative can report directly — and the employer's failure has consequences of its own.

What does SGK pay? Medical treatment, a daily temporary incapacity allowance during recovery, a permanent incapacity income where the loss of occupational earning capacity is assessed at 10% or more, and survivors' income plus a funeral grant in fatal cases. No minimum premium period applies to the work accident branch.

What can I claim from the employer on top of SGK? Material compensation for the lifetime earning loss the SGK payments do not cover, and moral compensation for the injury itself — for the worker, and in severe or fatal cases for close family. Employer fault, worker fault and the SGK deduction are all worked into the calculation.

Do I have to go to mediation before suing? No. Work accident and occupational disease compensation claims are expressly excluded from the mandatory mediation that applies to ordinary labour claims — the case can be filed directly in the labour court. Voluntary mediation remains possible, but only after the claim has been properly valued.

How long do I have to file? Limitation periods for work accident compensation are generally ten years. The practical deadline is much shorter: witnesses, CCTV footage and workplace records disappear within weeks, and the case is built on what was preserved early.

I signed a paper at the hospital. Is my claim gone? Not necessarily. Documents signed in the immediate aftermath — especially by a worker who could not read them — can be challenged, and lowball settlements signed before the loss was calculated do not necessarily bar a properly valued claim. Bring the paper to a lawyer before assuming anything.

I have left Turkey. Can I still pursue the case? Yes. A power of attorney issued at a Turkish consulate or apostilled abroad lets a lawyer in Turkey run the entire case — and in fatal cases, families abroad claim with apostilled, sworn-translated civil status documents. Presence in Turkey is not a condition of the claim.