Labour Law No. 4857 (İş Kanunu)
The Labour Law No. 4857 is the backbone of Turkish employment law — contracts, working time, wages, termination and severance — and it protects foreign employees on the same terms as Turkish ones, though for foreign staff its rules interact with the separate work permit regime.
What It Governs
The Labour Law No. 4857 is the backbone of Turkish employment law, governing employment contracts, working time, wages, termination and severance for the great majority of private-sector employment relationships. It applies to foreign employees working in Turkey on the same terms as Turkish employees — nationality changes nothing in the statute's protections, though for foreign staff its rules interact with the work permit regime under separate legislation.
Key Provisions for Foreign Nationals
Article 17 sets the statutory notice periods for terminating an indefinite-term contract, scaled by seniority from two weeks to eight weeks, with pay in lieu available. Articles 18 to 21 contain the job security regime: in workplaces of thirty or more employees, an employee with at least six months' seniority may challenge a termination that lacks a valid reason, through a procedure that begins with mandatory mediation and can end in reinstatement or compensation of four to eight months' wages plus up to four months' idle-time pay. Articles 24 and 25 govern immediate termination for just cause by the employee and the employer respectively — the provisions on which most contested dismissals turn. Severance pay remains governed by the surviving Article 14 of the former Labour Law No. 1475: one month's wage per year of service for qualifying terminations, subject to a statutory ceiling updated semi-annually. Separately, Law No. 7036 makes mediation a precondition to most employment lawsuits, which in practice front-loads the negotiation of every dismissal dispute. For a foreign employee, the practical overlay is that dismissal usually has immigration consequences as well as financial ones, since the work permit is tied to the employer — the reason termination disputes involving foreigners are rarely just about the severance figure.
Official source: the official text of Law No. 4857 on mevzuat.gov.tr.
This is a concise summary for general information only and is not an official translation. For the binding legal text, consult the official source above. This page is not legal advice.