What is Turkish Labor Law No. 4857?
Labor Law No. 4857, in force since 2003, is the backbone statute governing employment in Turkey. It regulates employment contracts, wages, the 45-hour working week, overtime, annual leave, termination notice and job security. Turkey has no at-will employment: dismissal requires notice by tenure and, in larger workplaces, valid grounds that courts can review.
Scope: who the law covers — and who falls outside it
Law No. 4857 applies to workplaces, employers and employees regardless of the field of activity — the default for virtually every company hiring in Turkey. Article 4 then carves out the exceptions: sea and air transport work (seafarers have their own Maritime Labor Law No. 854), agricultural and forestry workplaces employing 50 or fewer workers, home-based handicraft work done among family members, domestic services, apprentices (though occupational health and safety rules still reach them), athletes, and workplaces of the artisan type where at most three people work. Some activities are pulled back in even within excluded fields — dockside loading and unloading and ground services at airports, for example, are covered.
For a foreign employer the practical reading is simple: an office, retail, manufacturing or technology workforce in Turkey is under Law No. 4857 in full. The carve-outs matter mainly when hiring crews, agricultural labor or household staff — in those cases the employment relationship runs on the Code of Obligations or a sector statute instead, with different termination and severance mechanics.
What the law regulates, cluster by cluster
Contract types sit in Articles 8–16: indefinite and fixed-term, part-time, on-call work and probation (capped at two months, four by collective agreement). Wages live in Articles 32 and following, with the minimum wage machinery in Article 39. Working time is capped at 45 hours a week (Article 63), and overtime beyond it pays a 50% premium and is limited to 270 hours a year (Article 41). Paid annual leave scales with tenure — 14, 20 and 26 working days (Article 53). Maternity leave totals 24 weeks, raised from 16 by Law No. 7578 in May 2026 (Article 74). These are floors: contracts can improve every one of them, never undercut them.
Termination is where Turkey diverges most from at-will systems. Notice scales with tenure — two, four, six or eight weeks (Article 17) — and employees with six months' seniority in workplaces of thirty or more enjoy job security: dismissal needs a valid reason connected to capability, conduct or operational requirements, and courts can order reinstatement (Articles 18–21). Just-cause termination without notice is reserved for the serious situations listed in Articles 24–25. Severance pay is the one major item outside the law's own text: it still runs under Article 14 of former Law No. 1475, kept alive by transitional Article 6 of Law No. 4857.
The laws around it — what else an employer in Turkey faces
Labor Law No. 4857 is the backbone, not the whole skeleton. Social security registration, contributions and filings run under Law No. 5510 — every hire must be declared to SGK before day one. Occupational health and safety obligations, from risk assessments to mandatory training, come from Law No. 6331. Employee personal data is governed by Law No. 6698 (KVKK), Turkey's data-protection statute. Employment disputes have their own procedural gate: most wage, severance and reinstatement claims must go through mandatory mediation before a labor court will hear them. A compliant Turkish employment setup therefore reads at least four statutes together — which is why payroll, leave and personnel records are worth keeping in one disciplined system.
| Statute | Labor Law No. 4857, in force since 10 June 2003 |
| Scope | All workplaces and employees except the Article 4 exclusions |
| Working week | Maximum 45 hours (Article 63). Overtime at +50%, capped at 270 hours/year (Article 41) |
| Notice periods (Article 17) | 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 weeks for tenure under 6 months / 6–18 months / 18 months–3 years / over 3 years |
| Annual leave (Article 53) | 14 days (1–5 years), 20 days (5–15 years), 26 days (15+ years). Minimum 20 for ages 18 and under or 50 and over |
| Companion statutes | Law No. 5510 (social security), 6331 (OHS), 6698 (data protection), and severance under Article 14 of former Law No. 1475 |
Frequently asked
No. Under Labor Law No. 4857, terminating an indefinite contract requires notice scaled to tenure (2–8 weeks, Article 17), and in workplaces with thirty or more employees anyone past six months of seniority can only be dismissed for a valid reason tied to capability, conduct or operational needs — otherwise courts can order reinstatement or compensation (Articles 18–21). Immediate termination is reserved for the just-cause situations in Articles 24–25.
The law covers workplaces, employers and employees across all sectors by default. Article 4 excludes sea and air transport work, agricultural and forestry workplaces with 50 or fewer workers, domestic services, home-based family handicrafts, apprentices, athletes and three-person artisan workshops — those relationships run on the Code of Obligations or sector statutes such as the Maritime Labor Law instead. A typical office, retail or industrial workforce is covered in full.
No statutory provision obliges an employer to pay meal or transport allowances: Law No. 4857 mandates only the wage itself, at least at minimum-wage level. These benefits arise from the employment contract, collective agreements or established workplace practice — and once a benefit hardens into practice it becomes a working condition, so withdrawing it unilaterally requires the employee's written consent under Article 22. They also join the 'dressed wage' used in severance calculations.
At six months an employee has full wage, overtime and weekly-rest protections, a four-week notice entitlement on dismissal (Article 17), and — in workplaces of thirty or more — job security, since Article 18 requires exactly six months' seniority. Two big entitlements have not vested yet: statutory annual leave requires one full year of service (Article 53), and severance pay requires one year as well (Article 14, former Law No. 1475).
Breaches draw administrative fines under the law's penalty articles, enforced by labor inspectors, with amounts revalued yearly. Separately, affected employees can pursue their claims — unpaid wages, overtime, severance, reinstatement — through mandatory mediation and then the labor courts, where missing records typically count against the employer. Persistent violations also surface in SGK audits, since payroll and social security filings cross-check each other.