How do job descriptions work for employees in Turkey?
İş tanımı (also called görev tanımı) is the written job description in Turkish workplaces: title, reporting line, duties, authorities and required qualifications. It carries more legal weight than many employers expect: under Labor Law No. 4857, a material unilateral change to the agreed job binds the employee only with written notice and written acceptance within six working days (Article 22).
What goes into a Turkish job description
A complete iş tanımı covers the position title, its place in the organization and reporting line, a short purpose statement, the main duties and responsibilities, the position's decision and spending authorities, the qualifications required — education, experience, certificates, languages — and how performance will be measured. Turkish practice uses iş tanımı and görev tanımı interchangeably for the same document, and no statute distinguishes them. Duties read best as observable actions rather than abstractions, and five to eight core responsibilities keep the document both comprehensive and manageable for most roles.
The legal weight: written terms and the essential-change rule
Turkish law expects the terms of work on paper. Where no written employment contract exists, the employer must give the employee, within two months at the latest, a written document stating the general and specific working conditions (Labor Law No. 4857, Article 8) — and a job description that records the nature of the work is the natural companion to that duty. Once a description is attached to the contract, announced through personnel regulations or settled by workplace practice, it becomes part of the working conditions: a management tool that is simultaneously a commitment.
Changing those conditions is where Article 22 bites. An employer can make a material (essential) change to working conditions only by notifying the employee in writing, and a change the employee does not accept in writing within six working days does not bind the employee. Reassignments that substantially harden the role, demote it in substance or turn it into different work are treated as essential changes in practice. If the employee refuses, the employer's remaining path is termination on valid grounds with notice — and, past a year of service, severance. A written job description protects both sides of that dispute: it shows what the agreed job was, and therefore what counts as changing it.
Job description vs job posting — and keeping it current
The job description is an internal management document that lives as long as the position does, feeding performance reviews, pay banding and the org chart. The job posting (iş ilanı) is derived from it for the outside world: it takes the essential parts, sells the company and the role to candidates, and adds application terms and process. Writing the description first keeps the advertised job honest — what the interview promised matches the work that awaits. Keep the document alive: interview the people actually doing the job when drafting, split requirements into must-haves and preferences, and record any material revision with the employee's written acceptance as Article 22 requires.
| Turkish terms | İş tanımı and görev tanımı — used interchangeably for the same document |
| Core sections | Title, reporting line, purpose, duties, authorities, responsibilities, qualifications |
| Written terms duty | Without a written contract, written working conditions are due within 2 months (Art. 8) |
| Change rule | Material changes need written notice + the employee's written acceptance within 6 working days (Art. 22) |
| Relation to the posting | The posting is derived from the description, not the other way around |
Frequently asked
Not if the change is material. Under Article 22 of Labor Law No. 4857, an essential change to working conditions — the job's nature included — requires written notice to the employee, and a change not accepted by the employee in writing within six working days does not bind them. Minor adjustments within the employer's ordinary management rights remain possible. Substantially hardening a role, demoting it in substance or converting it into different work is where the written-acceptance requirement applies.
When a Turkish employer proposes an essential change to working conditions in writing, the employee has six working days to accept it in writing. Without that written acceptance the change does not bind the employee, and the employer's remaining lawful path is to terminate with notice by showing a valid reason for the change or another valid ground — a dismissal the employee can challenge in court, and one that carries severance once a year of service is complete.
The standard skeleton is: position title, reporting line and place in the organization, a short purpose statement, five to eight main duties written as observable actions, the position's decision and spending authorities, required qualifications split into must-haves and preferences, and the measures of performance. Keeping the document in Turkish (or bilingual) and signed alongside the employment contract makes it usable later — both as the Article 8 written record of working conditions and as evidence of what the agreed job is.
In practice yes: Turkish HR uses iş tanımı (job description) and görev tanımı (duty description) for the same document, and no statute assigns them different meanings. Some organizations reserve görev tanımı for a single position's detailed duty list and iş tanımı for the broader role definition, but that is a house convention rather than a legal distinction. What matters legally is that the document is written, current and acknowledged by the employee.
A refused essential change simply does not take effect — the employee continues in the agreed job. The employer may then either drop the change or terminate the contract by demonstrating in writing a valid reason for the change or another valid ground, observing the notice period (Labor Law No. 4857, Article 22). Such a termination is open to challenge before the labor courts, and with at least one year of service the statutory severance payment enters the equation, so role redesigns are best closed with written consent.