30April2021

Termination Ban and Pandemic Unpaid Leave is Extended to 30.06.2021

Cash wage support and termination ban due to Covid-19 reasons have been extended to June 30, 2021.

The decision was published with the Official Gazette dated 30.04.2021 and numbered 31470.

The related regulations were located on the Labor Law Temporary Article 10 as below:

"TEMPORARY ARTICLE 10 - Regardless of whether this Law is covered or not, any employment or service contract does not comply with the rules of ethics and good faith in paragraph (II) of the first paragraph of Article 25 and other relevant laws, the expiration of fixed-term contracts, the closure of the workplace for any reason and the termination of its activity, all kinds of service purchases made in accordance with the relevant legislation and the termination of the work in construction works, it cannot be terminated by the employer for a period of three months from the effective date of this article.

The employer may leave the worker entirely or partially on unpaid leave for a period of three months from the effective date of this article. Being entitled to unpaid leave under this article does not give the employee the right to terminate the contract based on the justified reason.

In violation of the provisions of this article, the employer or their representative, who terminates the employment contract, is given an administrative fine at the monthly gross minimum wage amount for the employee whose contract is terminated.

The President is authorized to extend the three-month periods in the first and second paragraphs up to six months."

In Which Cases Can the Employer Terminate the Work Agreement?

The terminations can be done within the scope of Temporary Article 10 of Labor Law; "Regardless of whether this Law is covered or not, any employment or service contract does not comply with the rules of ethics and good faith in paragraph (II) of the first paragraph of Article 25 and other relevant laws, the expiration of fixed-term contracts, the closure of the workplace for any reason and the termination of its activity, all kinds of service purchases made in accordance with the relevant legislation and the termination of the work in construction works".

What is the Sanction for Violating the Termination Ban?

Per the Labor Law Temporary Article 10, an administrative fine of gross minimum wage (3.577.50 TL for 2021) would be applied for each employee.

In addition, according to the statements of the short-term employment regulated in the Temporary Article 23 of Law No. 4447, employees should not be dismissed or terminated if the employer/employees benefit from short term employment allowance. If the employer terminates an employment contract within this period, the short-term employment of the workplace will be canceled, and all short-term employment allowances will be requested from the employer with interest.

You can find below the related Article 23 (Law No:4447):

"For the short-employment applications made for the compelling reason originating from the new coronavirus (Covid-19), valid until 30/6/2020, excluding the termination of the service contract envisaged in the third paragraph of the additional article 2 for the worker to qualify for the short-time working allowance the provision to fulfill the conditions of entitlement to unemployment insurance, short working start date those who have been subjected to service contract for the last 60 days, have worked for 450 days insured in the last three years unemployment insurance premium is applied as paid. Those who do not meet this condition, with the period not exceeding the short employment period can continue to benefit from the allowance for the time remaining from the last unemployment benefit entitlement.

In order to benefit from short term employment under this article, employees should not be dismissed / terminated by the employer, except for the reasons mentioned in the clause (II) of the first paragraph of Article 25 of the Law No. 4857 during the study period.

Applications made under this article are concluded within 60 days from the date of application.

The President is authorized to extend the application date made under this article until 31/12/2020 and to differentiate the days specified in the first paragraph."

Per the statements of this article, if the workplaces benefiting from the short-term employment allowance terminates an employment contract within the short-term employment period, their short-term employment allowances will be canceled and all allowances will be requested from the employer together with the interest. Therefore, this point also needs attention.

You can review our article for the details of the sanctions on violating the termination ban.

You can reach the Official Gazette about that extension via the link (in Turkish).

Should you have any queries or need further details, please contact your customer representative.

Author Erdoğdu Onur Erol, Category Social Security Law and Legislation, Labor Law

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