The statement on the Law No. 506 (previously Social Security Law) stating that employees should terminate job contracts and make a written request for retirement/pension benefits has been cancelled by the Constitutional Court and published on the Official Gazette on March 3, 2021 and numbered 31412.

Social Security Institution has published a new Communique (No: 2021/5) with regards to the above decision and stated that termination from the job and written request requirements are still valid for the retirement benefits per the Law No. 5510 (valid as of October 1, 2008).

On the Communique; Social Security Authorities refer to the Article 28 of the Law No. 5510, which states that the employees should terminate job contracts and request retirement benefits in writing for retirement benefits.

They also state that the Court Decision was about the previous Social Security Law No. 506 and with the Article 106 of the Law No. 5510, the related statement on the Law No. 506 has been cancelled. So, the new passage in Law No. 5510 stating that employees should terminate and request retirement benefits in writing is valid.

Accordingly, the requirements of termination from job and written retirement benefit request to SSI are still valid for retirement benefits.

Remote work is defined as below in Article 14 of the Labor Law No. 4857;

"Remote work is a business relationship established in writing based on the principle that the employee fulfills their job at home or outside the workplace with technological communication tools."

Based on this article, the Remote Work Regulation has been published in the Official Gazette dated March 10, 2021 and numbered 31419.

Regulation details are as below:

Purpose

The purpose of the regulation is defined in the below article;

ARTICLE 1 - (1) The purpose of this Regulation is to determine the tasks that cannot be done remotely and procedures & principles of remote work

As it is known, after the closure of the 22^nd Legal Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals, the disputes with the 9^th Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court decision were discussed and the final decisions were announced.

You can find below the details of the policy decisions on fixed-term employment contracts:

1) Regarding whether it is possible for the employer to claim that there are no objective conditions for a fixed-term employment contract:

Although, there is no objective condition to conduct or renew a fixed term employment contract;

If a fixed-term contract is conducted and the employer terminates it without a valid reason, the employee can request the remaining portion of the wages, the employer cannot request notice payment.

According to the decision of the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority ("KVKK") dated 11.03.2021 and numbered 2021/238, the deadlines for registration obligation to Data Controllers' Registry Information System ("VERBIS") have been extended.

With the relevant decision, it has been concluded that,

• For natural and legal person data controllers with more than 50 employees annually or a financial balance of more than 25 million TL annually, the deadline for fulfilling VERBIS registration and declaration obligation to Registry to be extended to 31.12.2021,
• For natural and legal person data controllers resident abroad, the deadline for fulfilling VERBIS registration and declaration obligation to Registry to be extended to 31.12.2021
• For natural and legal person data controllers with less than 50 employees annually and a financial balance of less than 25 million TL annually, and whose main activity is sensitive personal data processing, the deadline for fulfilling VERBIS registration and declaration obligation to Registry to be extended to 31.12.2021,
• For public institutions and organizations, the deadline for fulfilling VERBIS registration and declaration obligation to Registry to be extended to 31.12.2021,

and this decision to be announced at the website of the Authority and to be published in the Official Gazette.

We would like to emphasize that the relevant decision did not bring any changes about the compliance with the Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data ("KVKK") other than the registration deadline to VERBIS.

In order to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals, especially the privacy of individuals, natural and legal persons who process personal data are required to complete the compliance processes related to their administrative and technical obligations in processing personal data.