Shift Work in Turkey: Scheduling, Night Work and Overtime

Turkish regulations refer to an employee group working a shift as a posta. A shop may run one regular shift while a hospital or plant rotates several groups across the day. Neither the number nor the name of the shifts changes the working-time limits that apply to each person.

A reliable operation keeps three layers distinct: the published shift and assignment, the attendance record showing what happened, and the approved monthly puantaj that payroll will use. The schedule is the expectation, attendance is the evidence, and puantaj is the reconciled result. One cannot safely substitute for the others.

The general limit is 45 working hours per week. With a written agreement, hours may be distributed unevenly across working days and balanced over a defined period, but work may not exceed 11 hours in any day and the weekly average must remain within the normal limit. These ceilings apply to the employee, not separately to each site or shift.

Article 68 of Labor Law No. 4857 requires at least a 15-minute break for work of four hours or less, 30 minutes for work of more than four and up to 7.5 hours, and one hour for work longer than 7.5 hours. Breaks are not counted as working time, so total time at the workplace and net hours worked should be recorded separately.

Article 3 of the Shift Work Regulation requires the employer to announce the number of shifts, start and finish times, employee names, breaks, weekly rest days and changes where employees can easily see them. Ad hoc messages can communicate an exception, but they are not a substitute for a controlled schedule.

Plan across the employee's whole workload. If someone works at two branches or swaps into another team's shift, their hours and rest must be viewed on one timeline. Otherwise each local schedule can look compliant while the person's combined day or week crosses a limit.

Under Article 69 of the Labor Law, the statutory night period begins no later than 20:00 and ends no earlier than 06:00. A shift is treated as night work when more than half of its working time falls in that period. Night work is generally limited to 7.5 hours.

Employees in tourism, private security, health services, and petroleum exploration or drilling may work more than 7.5 hours at night with written consent. This is a narrow exception, not a rule for all rotating workplaces. The sector, the work performed and the consent record all matter.

An employee moving from one shift to another must receive at least 11 uninterrupted hours of rest before starting the new shift. Day and night groups normally rotate weekly, although a two-week rotation may be used when the nature of the work and occupational health and safety support it.

Each employee must also receive at least 24 consecutive hours of weekly rest within a seven-day period. To verify that a day marked off really provides 24 uninterrupted hours, read the finish of the previous shift together with the start of the next one.

Without a valid balancing arrangement, work beyond 45 hours in a week is overtime and is paid at a 50% premium. Employee consent is required and total overtime may not exceed 270 hours per person in a year. Where the contractual week is below 45 hours, time above the contract but up to 45 hours is a separate category paid at a 25% premium.

The employer must document overtime, keep a signed record in the personnel file and show the payment in payroll. A planned rota is not proof of actual work: clock records, approved leave, overtime consent and payroll results should be reconciled for the same employee and period.

Publish the regular shift templates and assignments first, then record attendance, leave and changes. At month-end, review exceptions for net hours, night work, insufficient rest, overtime and missing days. Only approved totals should flow to puantaj and payroll, with a record of who made each correction and when.

Otto HR keeps regular shift templates and employee assignments in the same workspace as attendance and approved leave, making payroll-ready puantaj easier to review. It does not provide legal advice, and this guide is general information. Obtain specialist advice for sector-specific rules, collective agreements and protected employee groups.