How many leave days does one week off use in Turkey?
In Turkey, a full calendar week of annual leave normally consumes six days of the statutory entitlement, not seven: Article 56 of Labor Law No. 4857 excludes the weekly rest day (Sunday) from the count, while Saturday — even in five-day workplaces — counts as a working day under Court of Cassation case law unless the employment contract states otherwise.
Sundays are excluded, Saturdays count by default
An employee who takes a Monday-to-Sunday week off in Turkey spends six days of their annual-leave balance rather than seven. Article 56 of Labor Law No. 4857 provides that weekly rest days, national holidays, and public holidays falling within a leave period are not counted against the entitlement — and the statutory weekly rest day is Sunday.
Saturday is the trap for foreign employers. Even where the company runs a five-day week and nobody works Saturdays, the Court of Cassation treats Saturday as a working day for leave counting (9th Civil Chamber, principle decision E. 2021/897, K. 2021/5272): weekly rest is defined as the 24 hours following the 45-hour working week (Articles 46 and 63), so a contractual Saturday off is not "weekly rest" and is deducted from the balance.
The exception must be written down. If the individual employment contract or a collective agreement designates Saturday as a weekly rest day alongside Sunday — or explicitly excludes Saturdays from annual-leave counting — then both Saturdays and Sundays inside the leave period are excluded under Article 56/5, plus any public holidays, and a calendar week costs five days instead of six. The court also stated the reverse carve-out: where the contract labels Saturday weekly rest but expressly says it counts as a working day for leave purposes, only Sundays are excluded and the week costs six days again.
Worked examples
Monday to Friday off: 5 days deducted. No rest day or holiday falls inside the interval, so all five days count. With the weekends on either side, the employee is actually away nine calendar days.
Monday to Sunday, a full calendar week: 6 days deducted by default — Saturday counts, Sunday does not. With an explicit contract clause excluding Saturdays, the same week costs 5 days. Two full calendar weeks cost 12 days, because two Sundays are excluded.
A public holiday inside the week shrinks the count further: a Monday–Sunday leave containing the 30 August national holiday, for example, deducts 5 days instead of 6. Counted this way, the statutory 14-day minimum spans 16 calendar days when taken as a single block.
What this means when hiring in Turkey
Turkey's entitlement tiers — 14, 20, or 26 days by seniority under Article 53 — are effectively working-day figures, so they stretch further in calendar terms than the raw numbers suggest. Budget roughly six entitlement days per calendar week of absence when planning cover, payroll cut-offs, or an employer-of-record agreement.
Settle the Saturday question in the employment contract rather than by default: one sentence stating whether Saturdays count against annual leave removes the most common dispute in Turkish leave accounting. Note also the splitting rule — leave may be divided by agreement as long as one portion is at least 10 days (Article 56) — so a stand-alone week off is lawful once that block is preserved.
| Monday–Friday off | 5 days deducted |
| Monday–Sunday (calendar week) | 6 days by default |
| Sunday (weekly rest) | Never deducted (Art. 56) |
| Saturday | Deducted unless the contract says otherwise |
| Public holidays during leave | Not deducted (Art. 56) |
| Two calendar weeks | 12 days deducted |
Frequently asked
Under Court of Cassation principle decision E. 2021/897, K. 2021/5272 (9th Civil Chamber), a non-working Saturday in a five-day schedule is a contractual day off, not statutory weekly rest, so it is deducted from the annual-leave balance. Only an explicit clause in the individual or collective employment contract excluding Saturdays changes this outcome.
National and public holidays that coincide with annual leave are excluded from the count under Article 56 of Labor Law No. 4857. The employee's balance is not charged for those days, and the absence effectively lengthens by the same amount.
Annual leave in Turkey may be split by agreement between the parties, with one statutory condition: at least one portion must be 10 days or longer (Article 56, as amended in 2016). Once that block is preserved within the year, the remainder can be taken in one-week or shorter slices.
Unused annual-leave days are paid out at termination on the employee's final base gross salary under Article 59 of Labor Law No. 4857, whatever the reason the employment ended. The claim is subject to a five-year limitation period.
The total depends on seniority: at least 14 days for one to five years of service (year five included), 20 for more than five but fewer than fifteen, and 26 from fifteen years on (Labor Law art. 53), with a 20-day floor for employees under 18 or aged 50 and over. The Saturday and Sunday rules on this page then decide how those days burn off the balance on the calendar.