Regulation on Amending the Regulation on Short-Time Working and Short-Time Working Allowance Has Been Announced

The Regulation on Amending the Regulation on Short-time Working and Short-time Working Allowance entered into force upon having been published in the Official Gazette No. 30590, dated 09.11.2018.

This regulation contains the amendments made to the Regulation on Short-time Working and Short-time Working Allowance, which entered into force upon having been published in the Official Gazette No. 27920, dated 30.04.2011. The relevant regulation has been prepared on the basis of the below detailed Additional Article 2 of the Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447.

• In case the working hours of a workplace are decreased temporarily or work is suspended fully or partially for a temporary period due to economic, sectoral or regional crisis, short-time working may be applicable for a term not exceeding 3 months.
• The request for short-time working including its reasons shall be submitted to the Turkish Employment Agency and the related Trade Union if there is a collective labor agreement.
• The employee must fulfil the conditions of becoming entitled to unemployment insurance, except for termination of the employment contract.
• Daily short-time working allowance is equal to 60% of the daily average gross income of the insured, calculated by taking into consideration the last 12-months earnings taken as basis for the social security premiums. This amount cannot exceed 150% of the gross minimum pay.
• Any excess payment made due to incorrect information or documents submitted by the employer shall be collected from the employer together with its legal interest.

The amendments promulgated by the Regulation on Amending the Regulation on Short-Time Working and Short-Time Working Allowance are summarized below.

• The terms Ministry/ Minister of Labor and Social Security were amended as Ministry/ Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services. (Article 3, Article 14)
• In addition to the force majeure events such as earthquake, fire, etc., the expression “periodic situations caused by external impacts” was added. (Article 3, Paragraph 1, Sub-Paragraph h)
• It was stated that the determination of the suitability of the short-time working request shall be made by Labor Inspectors. (Article 3, Paragraph 1, Sub-paragraph ı; Article 5, Paragraph 4; Article 8, Paragraph 2)
• The terms “Trade Union” were amended as “Workers’ Union”. (Article 4, Paragraph 1, Paragraph 2, Sub-paragraph b; Article 5, Paragraph 4; Article 11)
• It was stated that the workplace should also state its Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) number on its notification. (Article 4, Paragraph 2, Sub-paragraph b)
• The submission time for the submission in magnetic and written media of the list including the information about the employees who shall undertake short-time work, prepared in the format specified by the Agency, which used to be “during the assessment”, was amended as “during the application”. (Article 4, Paragraph 2, Sub-paragraph c)
• It was stated that the applications should be submitted immediately to the relevant unit of the Directorate for Guidance and Inspection to ensure the determination of suitability to be made by the Labor Inspectors. It was stated that the results of the determination of suitability shall initially be notified to the Agency, which shall then notify the same to the employer. (Article 5, Paragraph 4)
• An article was added which reads “the time interval for carrying out short-time working which can be carried out within the daily, weekly or monthly working time shall be determined by the employer taking into consideration the customary practices of the workplace and the characteristics of the work”. (Article 7, Paragraph 4 )

The full text of the Regulation on Amending the Regulation on Short-time Working and Short-time Working Allowance is available here in Turkish.